Anurag Kashyap, who turns 53 today, is undoubtedly one of the most influential Indian filmmakers of 21st century. The Gangs of Wasseypur director, who has had some setbacks in the past few years, is now gearing up for the release of Nishaanchi, which hits theatres on September 19, even as another of his films, Bobby Deol-starrer Bandar, awaits a theatrical release in India. While Nishaanchi will mark Anurag’s first directorial in more than 2 years, the filmmaker has delivered some of the most landmark movies, and moments, of contemporary Hindi cinema,
On the director’s 53rd birthday, here’s a look back at a few iconic moments from Anurag Kashyap's filmography that have attained an indelible place in pop culture discourse.
Gulaal — ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill…’
The most striking element of Anurag Kashyap’s cinema, since the beginning, was always the use of strong, unfiltered language — sans any dramatics or affectations. In Gulaal, Dukke Bana, a rabid separatist (Kay Kay Menon), in search of the Rajputs’ lost glory, gives a rabble-rousing speech to his minions. Making fun of the aristocrat’s political indifference, Dukke Bana begins reciting a nursery rhyme which ends up with the choicest of cuss words, jolting us out of our seats with its bluntness.
Black Friday — In the name of religion
In a scene that has gained much larger significance in present times, ACP Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay Menon) confronts Badshah Khan (Aditya Srivastav), a terrorist with a guilty conscience who, still, is too proud to admit to his self-doubt in front of the system. Rakesh then points out to his narrow-sightedness and his naivete that is used by machiavellan people holding power over him, before saying, “Dharam ke naam ke Ch@#%ya ban gaye tum log” (You got fooled in the name of religion).” Very rare has a film looked us this directly in the eye, and called a spade a spade.
Dev D — The Elvis impersonators in Emosanal Atyachar
Vaguely referencing a visual from Kamal Swaroop’s Om Dar-B-Dar, Kashyap creates a fever-dream-like scenario where a pair of Elvis Presley impersonators with a Bhojpuri accent perform at a Punjabi wedding, as our self-destructive protagonist Dev (Abhay Deol) takes to Vodka until he pukes his guts out.
‘Emosanal Atyachar’ changed the demography of Indie cinema in India, and Dev D’s success paved the way for a more jubilant embrace of kitschy sensibilities in experimental filmmaking — Amit Trivedi’s path-breaking soundtrack had a huge part to play in it.
Ugly — A police station visit gone wrong
This is a quintessential Anurag Kashyap sequence. It runs on a very simple brief — ‘Two men visit a police station to report the case of their missing daughter.’ Kashyap trusts his actors to turn this wafer-thin idea into a hilarious improv as the loudmouth cop (Girish Kulkarni) twists every word said by the two men, turning them into a butt of a joke while devising his next gag. A seven-minute scene of absolute genius, which carries the best of everyone, especially Kashyap who lets his actors do their magic.
This chaotically humorous scene that ends with the victims taking a photograph of the cop.
Gangs of Wasseypur — Mithun Chakraborty and a public roast
A film that is famously a failure in balance sheets, but enjoys a rare iconic status in pop culture discourse, Gangs of Wasseypur is brimming with countless moments that have made it to the all-timer lists. It’s really hard to pick one moment, but the sequence where Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) decides to usher in a public roast of his arch-nemesis Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), casually hurling threats on a loudspeaker in Mushaaira-style, even as a Mithun Chakraborty impersonator dances on the sidelines (to a song about never-dying hunger for revenge, nonetheless) takes the cake for me.
In a film where guns are commonplace and violent is second nature for everyone, the essence of Gangs of Wasseypur still remains in how humiliation is an underrated form of exacting vengeance. This sequence encapsulates it the best.
