Half an hour into the first part of the film, I sat there wondering if director Anurag Kashyap (who also co-wrote and co-produced the film) had bitten off more than he could chew. What I was seeing on screen was a relentless spate of violence and crime with an utterly confusing narrative spread over many decades but then the scene slowly started changing and changed for the better. The story started becoming clearer, the characters started becoming compelling and the film took off into a different orbit altogether.

Gangster-movies have been coming dime-a-dozen in Bollywood. Almost every film in that genre has tried aping Hollywood elements from masters like Coppola, Scorcesse, Leone and Tarantino. Kashyap’s film too draws a lot from those all-powerful cinematic influences but most importantly it retains its core Indian-ness intact. While tracing three families’ multi-generational Mafia gang-wars and their complex inter-coiled life-stories full of drama, deceit, daredevilry and dark humor, Anurag shows us Bihar as never before. It is Bihar at its violent, virulent worst!

Based on some real life characters and incidents, the film graphically portrays the increasing caste-divided criminalization of the state’s coal-mining, labour unions and political parties over the decades and an almost quiet public acceptance of this kind of life. Raw, rustic and realistic language, characters and incidents make this film a must-watch for movie-buffs. The clever use of earthy folk-songs and old film-songs adds another layer of reality to the screen proceedings.

Sterling performances from everybody contribute a lot to making this film into a modern classic. Manoj Bajpai as the revenge-driven lecherous mafia don, Richa Chaddha as his motor-mouth first wife, Piyush Mishra as his long-term confidante, Tigmanshu Dhulia as his cold-blooded feaudal lord-cum-political don adversary, Nawazuddin Siddqi as the junky successor and Huma Qureshi as his lover are the standout performers.

Not everyone is going to appreciate the indulgent five hour-plus length of the film and the often repetitive incidents of chases, murders, double crossings and badmouthings. But for those who appreciate dark and dangerous themes, Kashyap has succeeded in creating an epic crime saga with a sweeping cinematic vision and many deft directorial touches.

To mount a film on this scale and to pull it off with conviction is no joke but Kashyap has passed this test with flying colors. It is definitely his most ambitious and most accomplished film yet.