L'India è in fibrillazione: la seconda parte di Gangs of Wasseypur, il film fenomeno del 2012, viene finalmente distribuita nelle sale. Vi segnalo i video dei brani Chhi Chha Ledar (interpretato dalla dodicenne Durga - un nome, un programma), Electric Piya e Kaala Rey. Il trailer è a dir poco magnifico. Cosa aggiungere? Peccato non essere a Mumbai.
Aggiornamento del 12 agosto 2012 - Vi segnalo di seguito alcune recensioni:
- The Times of India, 10 agosto 2012, ****: 'This time it's double the dollops of gore; two much. Booming guns and metal-shredded innards spilling gut onto the streets. More revenge and rage. More gangs and more bangs (...) and more man-power. With every shade of red, black and grey - deeper and bolder. (...) Anurag Kashyap's culmination to this gang-saga is as bloody as the first (if not more); yet it's an easier watch. The story is astutely interspersed with bursts of music (Bihari folkish tunes with a modern twist), humour (crass and rural), high drama and sudden relief - like a sexual climaxing. Even with a high quotient of brutal violence and moral assassination, Kashyap keeps his sense of humour (mostly black) intact, and entertains. With characters named 'Perpendicular', 'Definite', (...) 'Tangent' - he truly defies all tiresomely tried-and-tested formulas of filmmaking in Bollywood with his 'big bang-bang theory'. Though in spurts, it unleashes scenes that make you crack up, in true Bollywood style humour. (...) Nawazuddin Siddiqui spells doom, is devious and highly-dramatic - yet you take to his character almost instantly. He brilliantly blazes through this role, from being as strong or as shallow as his character demands. (...) With excellent performances, a screenplay that's strung together beautifully (....) a revenge story that touches a dramatic crescendo and music that plays out perfectly in sync with tragic twists of tale - GOW II is an interesting watch, for the brave-hearted. Like the first part, the movie slows down at times (with pointless pistols, hordes of characters and wasted sub-plots); the length needs to be shot down desperately. But otherwise, it's revenge on a platter - served cold (heartedly) and definitely worth a 'second' helping'.
- Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama, 7 agosto 2012, ****: 'Murky, menacing and petrifying and yet witty, GOW II is one intriguing expedition that's several notches above the foremost part. Strengthened by exhilarating acts and stimulating plot dynamics, this is a transfixing motion picture that confiscates your complete concentration. In fact, this cartridge-ridden chronicle is immensely praiseworthy and commendable for a multiple viewing, only to grasp all its fine characteristics to the optimum. (...) On the facade, GOW II is a vengeance story. (...) Scrape that exterior and you'll notice more than that. The writing is unrestrained and imaginative. In fact, in terms of its screenplay, there is not a single scene in the film that leaves you with a sense of deja vu. (...) On the whole, GOW II is an Anurag Kashyap show all through and without an iota of doubt, can easily be listed as one amongst his paramount works. An engaging movie with several bravura moments. Watch it for its absolute cinematic brilliancy!'.
- Raja Sen, Rediff, 8 agosto 2012, *** 1/2: 'Kashyap, in pulling out all the stops, seems content here to let his madcap characters actually enjoy themselves a great deal, making for a far sillier - and decidedly more joyous - cinematic universe. (...) Kashyap's visual flair has just grown with each film, and this one is not just cinematically self-assured but also highly nuanced'.
- Tehelka, ***: 'Like the precocious child too aware of being cute, GOW is ultimately irritating. It’s not the cuteness or the precociousness that is the problem, it’s the awareness. Anurag Kashyap is a canny filmmaker. He knows what audiences will respond to, but he is so pleased with this knowledge that he can’t resist yet another slowmotion sequence, yet another film reference, yet another spray of too vivid blood, yet another character with yet another defining tic. (...) Sneha Khanwalkar’s unquestionably cool soundtrack is so overused, it punctuates the film like a giddy schoolgirl might punctuate a text message or tweet: “OMG!!!!! GoW ROCKS!! 2 gud!!! Nawazuddin is SOOO CUUTTEE!!!!” There are so many exclamation points, you long for the restraint of the full stop, the courtesy of the comma. (...) As with GOW I, GOW II careens from scene to scene like a drunk driver between lanes, the tone at once portentous, bawdy, abrasive, comic, earnest: the film amounts to much less than the sum of its often violent, often tender, often funny, often spectacular parts'.
- Mayank Shekhar, 8 agosto 2012: 'Few actors in recent years have managed to morph into characters the way Nawazuddin (Siddiqui) has. His everyman looks and incredible command over his demeanour helps him achieve a level of transition that makes every other leading man you’ve met at the movies this year seem like monkeys - imitations, either of others, or their own selves. You’re equally stunned by the casting (...) for the rest of the film. Each piece, right down to the toothy thanedar, fits in brilliantly across a saga phenomenally mined by (the) story writer. (...) Over the past few years, the kind of talents Anurag Kashyap has managed to attract and inspire as both producer and director makes him India’s top film school of his own. He’s rightly the fan-boy’s ultimate filmmaker. Director Ram Gopal Varma used to play this role before. This is doubtlessly Kashyap’s best work yet. (...) The director is interested in detail, whether in the step-by-step procedure of murder on the street, or booth-capturing, or sweetly mulling over seductive moments. He’s clearly mastered the pop-corn art of sensational killings and colourful dialogue. The reason you prefer this sequel to the first installment, besides it being more contemporary is, well, this is where the beginning ties up with the end. You get a full sense of the film’s ambitions. You leave the theatre feeling satiated, slightly rejuvenated, but mostly heavy in the head. You realise the picture might have hit you with a rod. Clearly that was the intention'.
- Sarit Ray, Hindustan Times, 10 agosto 2012: 'GOW II is less like a movie sequel, more like the season finale of an ongoing (and admittedly, engaging) TV series. (...) In Kashyap’s pulp-fiction version of the Jharkhand mafia wars, violence is fundamental. It’s graphic, easy and often without deliberation. The gravity of death is replaced by an ironical matter-of-factness: the cries of mourning are drowned out by the cheap noise of a brass band. Cinematic realism pervades, not only in the film, but in the minds of its characters. (...) The movie plays out amid political and financial machinations - illegal scrap metal trading, election rigging - not unheard of in Jharkhand. Yet, it would be a mistake to judge Wasseypur for factual correctness. Kashyap shows familiarity with this world in his attention to detail - the typical Hindi accents, the Ray Ban shades, the pager. But they enhance the flavour rather than the facts. Wasseypur is as much a celebration of small-town India as it is a sinister revenge tragedy. If the subject wasn’t so gory, you’d call it charming'.
