You know a film is a classic when it becomes an endless source of meme content and its dialogues are quoted in everyday conversations. The Anurag Kashyap-directed Gangs of Wasseypur (GoW) films are a case in point. These films are re-releasing in theatres on Friday (August 30). This is the perfect time to remind ourselves that Hindi cinema can do infinitely better.

Who would have thought that a revenge story set in Jharkhand and starring some of the best actors working in Hindi cinema today (Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadha, Pankaj Tripathi and Jaideep Ahlawat) would become a lesson in making films on masculinity and gangsters? And it’s safe to say that the director wasn’t intentionally trying to do either of those. Kashyap himself has said in interviews that he was simply trying his best to make a film, a ‘masala’ film, “to make a film on these criminals whose obsession with revenge was ridiculous”, (as told to A Rabbit’s Foot).

These films revolve around the coal mafia of Dhanbad and three families who vie for power and control. The GoW franchise shows us that men can be extremely foolish when it comes to asserting power and control. The greatest example of the most ridiculously foolish gangster ever in films is the versatile Manoj Bajpayee’s Sardar Khan. With him, director Anurag Kashyap has balanced all the pointless glorification of crime lords through cinema. Because Sardar Khan is a fool whom we laugh at, not with. In fact, not only him, but even the antics and dialogues of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Faizal or Pankaj Tripathi’s Sultan Qureshi are presented in a funny way.

The chase scene between Definite and Shamshad, the killing of Sultan Qureshi’s character (Pankaj Tripathi), the failed attempts by Sardar and his gang to kill people. Sardar Khan slapping his own son because he was arguing with him and slapping him after he gets shot, and that iconic scene ‘where is the key’ (The struggle to find the keys to the jeep) sequences are instances where we see our supposedly dreaded goons turn into a human, clumsy mess. As if Kashyap is mocking us, ‘Look, this is your dirty, dreaded mafia gang.’ When a gang commits murders continuously and at the same time keeps the audience laughing, you know that as a viewer you have struck gold.

Even the dialogues stand the test of time. The memorable line spoken by Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia) that cinema makes fools of everyone, and then making the lead characters idolise stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan who have played hyper macho men on screen, was another example of the makers winking at the audience, making us question why we ever thought violence was cool and bloody, when Kashyap has shown that only egotistical fools like Sardar Khan use violence to gain effect.

Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography was superb. Every single frame felt like it was happening in real time. It looked chaotic, but it had an emotion that leapt out of the screen into our world. Sneha Khanwalkar’s music and GV Prakash’s score serve as the perfect companion to Kashyap and Zeishan Quadri’s strong screenplay — rustic, raw and fun.

All we can say is that when a writer like Martin Scorsese sends you a handwritten letter praising your film, you know you have made a landmark movie.

Mr Kashyap, thank you.