Mirzapur The Movie Review: A Sprawling, Bloody Underworld Drama With A Sharp Twist

Mirzapur The Movie Review: The extended parable of the pursuit and preservation of power in a lawless upcountry region that earned a substantial following as a web series is compressed smartly into a jaunty, action-packed three-hour-plus movie with new characters and detours thrown in.

The movie has its share of surprise elements but plays out largely along predictable lines. Most of the men and women who peopled Mirzapur over its two seasons are back in Mirzapur: The Movie - a few of them from the dead - at the centre of events and backstories that did not make it to the series or were merely alluded to.

Produced by Excel Entertainment, Mirzapur: The Movie continues in the same vein as the series although it isn't an out-and-out rehash. Written by Puneet Krishna and directed by Gurmmeet Singh, the film stays faithful to the world that the two rustled up eight years ago.

The action, set in 2018, moves beyond the streets of Mirzapur and to the sand dunes of Rajasthan, where a part of the first half and a significant section of the second play out. The desert landscape gives the movie a visual sweep and texture that the series did not possess.

One new character, a Jaisalmer-based drug supplier played by Ravi Kishan, emerges as the principal challenger to Akhandanand "Kaleen Bhaiya" Tripathi's Mirzapur throne. He forges an alliance of convenience with Tripathi's longtime mafia rival Rati Shankar Shukla of Jaunpur (Subhrajyoti Barat).

The drug supplier, Babban "Babua" Yadav, turns to Zarina (Anangsha Biswas), the mistress of the CM's brother, Jai Prakash "J.P." Yadav (Pramod Pathak), to bring himself up to speed with the story of the rise and rise of Kaleen Bhaiya. He has sights set on the throne of Mirzapur.

After a Kaleen Bhaiya voiceover - it plays over visuals of a scorpion crawling on a chair - provides a brief idea of how he has managed to gain power and hold on to it by perpetuating fear. Dread is the key, he asserts.

Mirzapur - The Movie opens with a couple of sequences that demonstrates exactly what he means. In Mirzapur, he summarily kills a rival. In Bahraich, the slain man's son and his goons are coterminously eliminated outside their "masala" factory by the Pandit siblings Guddu (Ali Fazal) and Bablu (Jitendra Kumar, stepping into the breach left by Vikrant Massey), Kaleen Bhaiya's trusted hatchet men.

It helps that the audience knows most of the characters inside out. The screenplay does not, therefore, require to squeeze in any exposition except when Babban Yadav arrives on the scene and needs to be provided a recap so that he can draw up expansion plans for his business and attempt to get a foothold in Purvanchal.

It is business as usual for everyone else. Kaleen Bhaiya, as the most powerful underworld leader in Mirzapur, calls the shots. He, as he himself asserts more than once, does not kill. He orders kills. There are kills aplenty.

His son, Munna Tripathi (Divyenndu), is upset with him because of the leeway that he gives to Guddu and Bablu. The rivalry between Guddu and Munna, like it was in the series, is a crucial facet of the plot. The two foes are more alike than they are willing to see.

The movie also has its complement of love stories. Munna believes he has a chance of worming his way into the heart of Sweety Gupta (Shriya Pilgaonkar) but the lady has no interest in him. She is madly in love with Guddu.

Bablu has feelings for Sweety's sister, Golu (Shweta Tripathi), but is unable to express his love. He is happy helping her with her speeches for the college students' union elections.

And, of course, the deeply dissatisfied Beena (Rasika Dugal), Akhandanand Tripathi's second wife, does what she can to rid herself of a sense of powerlessness. Her story is given a vigorous new push that muddies the waters in the Tripathi mansion more than it ever did before.

Mirzapur and Jaisalmer are separated by miles but the linkages between the two places run deeper than the deal that Babban Yadav offers to strike with Kaleen Bhaiya.

Like the latter's infallible bodyguard Maqbool Khan (Shaji Choudhary), there is Birju Lohar (Mohit Malik) in Babban's camp. The former is driven by lifelong loyalty, the latter by love thwarted. And thereby hangs a tale.

There is a dearth of blood and gore. Cuss words fly as thick and fast as the bullets and fists. But when the men in Mirzapur and Jaisalmer are not gunning for each other, they seem perfectly capable of being human, at least superficially.

The bad blood between father and son, between Kaleen Bhaiya and Munna, is occasionally addressed when the younger man, prone to angry outbursts and irresponsible acts, speaks his mind after his father ticks him off.

Munna hasn't forgotten his deceased mother and cannot bring himself to accept Beena Tripathi as the woman of the Tripathi house. On his mother's birthday, Munna buys a cake, roughs up the baker in the process, and ends up falling foul of his father. In our line of work, we cannot afford to mope, the old man says.

In the Pandit household, too, father and son, Ramakant (Rajesh Tailang) and Guddu, do not see eye to eye. The father is alarmed that his younger son, Bablu, the brainy and sedate one, has begun to follow in his elder brother's footsteps.

Guddu, hotheaded and obsessed with his biceps and pectorals, is a mamma's boy. In his eyes, mom Vasudha (Sheeba Chaddha) can do no wrong.

A wristwatch of great sentimental value that Vasudha tries to buy back from a pawnbroker only to lose it to somebody who pays more for it drives a wedge between Guddu and the man who humiliates and deprives his mother. He vows vengeance.

So, this sprawling, bloody underworld drama is, when it pauses for breathers and allows the characters to converse, occasionally turns into a family drama that explores love, loyalty, envy, friendship and brotherly bonding. In Mirzapur, the families that stick together survive despite all the odds stacked against them.

Nothing underscores that more than a post-credits sequence that represents not only a sharp twist in the tail, but also a clear indication that this isn't the end of the road for Mirzapur on the big screen. There might be more in store.

And why not? India does not have its own Mission: Impossible, Charlie's Angels and Miami Vice, serialised television productions that have had a life beyond the small screen. A Mirzapur movie franchise might not be such a bad idea provided the makers find enough narrative meat to pad it with.

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