Review: “Mirzapur” adds little to its borrowed world of gun-cradling gangsters and power-hungry mafia patriarchs.

[Might contain spoilers, many of them.]

The wedding seems to be a vital element in a gangster picture. The iconic opening sequence of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, in which a mob patriarch casually conducts his business as shrieks of laughter rise from his backyard, where his daughter is getting married and people are making merry, placed the sacred white of a wedding next to the fiery red of the mob business. The first season of the Amazon Prime original, Mirzapur, created by Karan Anshuman and Puneet Krishna, opens and closes with weddings soiled by blood. It begins with a bunch of intoxicated young men infiltrating a wedding procession going through the sleepy streets of Mirzapur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, and how a moment of revelry changes lives. A gun goes off and the groom is killed. The killing is accidental, and the victim isn’t eminent, but it sets in motion events that will ultimately transform the fate of the town.

In recent years the Hindi film industry has looked towards the north, especially Uttar Pradesh, for inspiration to make gangster films. Anurag Kashyap delivered a major work with the ambitious yet flawed Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012, which brought the flamboyance and unruliness back to the Hindi gangster film. There were several smaller films that tried to emulate its style but were not half as successful. Mirzapur appears to be one of those works that are indebted to Gangs of Wasseypur for its creative vision and courage, but it lacks its epic sweep, its startling imagination, its irresistible humor, and more importantly, its nerve. The concoction here comprises of a familiar set of elements: vibrant characters, colorful language, over-the-top violence, and a smattering of tongue-in-cheek humor. And the inspirations that help brew this concoction are diverse. I could spot overt references to Vishal Bharadwaj’s Shakespearean adaptations Maqbool and Omkara, the occasional bows to Gangs of Wasseypur, of course, and maybe a few touches of Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil, too.

However, for any work to be complete, it must find a way around the inspirations that gave birth to it. It must, at any cost, come of its own. In this regard, Mizapur isn’t exactly a success; it struggles to find its feet and establish its world of gun-toting hoods and simmering rivalries, but fails. Its world doesn’t look lived in – rather, it looks borrowed – and the primary characters come alive only much later. But the more urgent problem that isn’t addressed soon enough is, there’s very little originality here.

Mirzapur traces the rise of two brothers against the backdrop of the Uttar Pradesh underworld, and how a stray shooting incident puts them in touch with Akhandanand Tripathi, an arms dealer, opium smuggler and reigning don of Mirzapur, who uses his carpet business as a front for his illicit activities, thus his sobriquet ‘Kaleen bhaiya’. It’s also not particularly surprising to see that he has shades of the character of Abbaji from Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool; both of them appear to have been bred in the same household. Both are married to much younger women and their right-hand men are called Maqbool. And yet, Akhandanand (played by the incomparable Pankaj Tripathi) doesn’t wield the same influence as Abbaji. Never do we believe the extent of his power. We are told about it persistently, though. It’s a little disappointing to pick up bits and pieces about the central characters and events through chunks of dialogue, and it’s one of Mirzapur’s bigger flaws. The writing lacks the polish often found in great cinematic works. The characters constantly articulate what they are thinking out loud, as if being unpredictable is a bad thing, and it robs them of the opportunity to be memorable.

The characters, in themselves, are not a bad bunch. We have the wayward, power-hungry son who is to be Akhandanand’s successor, and the two brothers who threaten his legacy. We have a group of supporting characters as well, boringly written and underused, that inexplicably vanishes for long periods of time. We have a corrupt politician eying higher office who also happens to be a nexus between rival gangs, quite the staple in Hindi gangster films these days. All in all, it’s a mixed bag, and it’s a shame that none of them sparkle. The accents appear to have been picked up rather than imbibed, and the actors seem to have a ball rattling off expletives. Given how the makers of direct-to-stream projects get to work with more creative freedom, it was always a given that Mirzapur would contain a healthy amount of swearing. (There’s little doubt that it would likely not have made it to the theatres if it had been a feature-length film.) And gore, the unwarranted amount of gore. It’s a truly visceral experience to sit through it all, but it’s also a bit of a letdown to see the boundaries of creative freedom being used in a way that eventually adds little to the characters or the plot. It does its bit to set the mood, but it strays far too often into indulgence.

In all fairness, although the brew here is composed of familiar elements, it is never less than fairly engaging. The performances might be a tad inconsistent in parts, and there is no revelation here, unfortunately, but they are strong. (Divyendu Sharma, in particular, is impressive.) And there is a reasonable amount of tension that is executed competently, and two or three powerful moments that clobbered me. I wasn’t fully convinced by how some of the character arcs developed (especially how the two brothers go from innocent students to hardened mafia henchmen in the blink of an eye), but the series moves briskly enough to ensure these shortcomings are not lingered over. The result, then, is a work of few highs and many lows, one that is not immediately promising, but one that ultimately managed to get under my skin well enough for me to look forward to its second season. Hallelujah.

[Not For Reproduction]

Essay: The Indian "24" : A landmark? Yes. Great? No.

Last week, the Indian adaptation of 24 hit the screens, eliciting loud groans from the grandmas of the Indian households, who are used to watching saccharine-soaked family-dramas, and making them go bonkers over the violence and the impudence of the show. And it's also no secret that this wily adaptation is, by far, one of the best things to happen to Indian television. The last time I enjoyed a show on Indian television was Kaun Banega Crorepati, a spin-off of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, back in 2000 when it was actually good. Now it's just filling in for the family-dramas since it's got almost the same amount of tears and melodrama albeit Amitabh Bachchan is a magnificent host as always.

Now, I was also one of those who caught the first segment of 24 as it went on air, bumming around on the couch because the promos looked really promising. A suave Anil Kapoor went bang-bang in a manner so sly that I'm sure half of this insanely populous country would've tuned in just to see that again. Like I did. I've got to be honest, I was hooked on 24 the minute it began. Slowly, gradually, it gripped you, owing to Abhinay Deo's skillful direction and some marvelously brisk editing. What didn't impress was the dialogue, which touched a new corny high, by the way. There's a few "I didn't want to hurt you" or "My country is more important now". Try "I thought I could trust you when I couldn't trust anybody". In any case, they sounded like lines, the characters are characters but there's something that makes it fascinating. Anupam Kher's cameo was terrific, the cinematography is unusually killer for the Indian television standards and the series is intrepid in its storytelling.

24 is obviously created by a bunch of tenacious chauvinists. They've rebelled, to my delight, against the tyrannical Ministry Of Information & Broadcasting, which passes content for television. There's a brief shot of a thumb of a dead guy getting hacked off in the second segment, something that would've been hindered to be shown otherwise. So, I wouldn't really lambaste it as being just another action series because this one's different. This one's significant.

Now, you may wonder why I'm mouthing off when just six episodes are done with. I beg to inform you that 24 is down with the Indian Television syndrome, which is slang for kicked in the nuts. The action has been flushed away, the vile feeling of melodrama has creeped in and there's no way out of it. There's a hint of an odd romance too, which makes me nauseous, and the script, which promised a great deal, like I said, is bitten by the hackneyed bug. The bad thing is that we already know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. So, if the writers are thinking of making a revelation later on about this, you can pass. The plot of the assassination of the Prime Minister is compelling enough on paper but the sequences which illustrate the situation at the Prime Minister's hotel room are mercilessly boring. That's boring in big, bold letters. And the series, which was supposed to be exhilarating and zippy, is so goddamn slow. If you miss one segment, don't sweat it, really. You'll find out that you haven't missed much and you can still pick up from where you left off.

What infuriated me above all is the unprofessionalism when it came to publicizing the content. And I blame the channel and the team that heads it. If you see the promos, you'll find out that they give away the plot-twists beforehand, without the slightest bit of shame. Why on earth are they doing the hunches for us? Are we pea-brained? Are our heads made of fluff? When you see the heading Next Week, you better close your eyes. Because those bozos are going to tell you, whether you like it or not, what's about to happen. Oh, it's easy-peasy to guess, which is what they've misconceived 'cause they think we'll want to tune in to watch what we already know is going to happen. Those fools!

24 is a landmark surely but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's great. It's cliched, it's predictable and it's a work of craft that's rare. I enjoy watching it because this is something that I haven't seen on Indian television but it did let me down and kicked me in the teeth with its incredibly tacky writing. Still, I'd suggest you watch it because I don't know who'll be the next one to stand up to the customs we have here. Better enjoy it while it lasts, eh?