Film

Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1

Name: Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1
Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime
Released: 2012
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadha, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Reema Sen

A sprawling crime saga set across decades of rural India, tracking feuds, violence and betrayal through the lives of gangsters and their families. Operatic in scale but grounded in real places and people, it's a masterclass in ensemble storytelling that treats its criminals as fully human. For anyone who loves ambitious, unglamorous crime fiction.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love crime sagas where family feuds and power grabs matter as much as the gunfire, and you enjoy a bold, scruffy style with songs jammed up against brutality.

Skip it if you want a tight, plot-driven thriller, since this one wanders through decades and a crowded cast of characters and takes its time getting anywhere.

What it asks of you: Settle in for two hours and forty minutes, with a loose, shifting timeline and a tolerance for violence that is brutal and wry.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai2010

Like Gangs, this is a stylized crime chronicle that treats its gangsters as romantic figures. Emraan Hashmi and Ajay Devgn are magnetic, and the film understands the seductive pull of power and money.

But It's more melodrama than Gangs—glossier, less interested in moral weight. The romance subplot may feel like it dilutes the crime story.

The Godfather Part II1974

The template for everything Gangs of Wasseypur does: a multi-generational crime epic that fractures narrative across decades and continents. It shows how ambition corrupts across families and time.

But It's nearly three and a half hours and moves deliberately. Some find the Vito flashbacks less gripping than the Michael storyline, and the pacing is patient to a fault.

Mulk2018

Another Dhulia film about belonging, prejudice and the law in modern India. It has the same moral seriousness and refusal to simplify its characters' positions. Rishi Kapoor is superb.

But It's a courtroom drama at heart, slower and more rhetorical than Gangs. Some find the messaging heavy-handed, though it never feels sanctimonious.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Power of the Dog2021

Both films use landscape and family hierarchy to explore how power and shame corrupt. Both protagonists are men broken by their past, using violence as the only language they know. Both are interested in the men who watch and wait, not just the men who act.

A Western that plays by different rules: slow, psychologically intricate, built on barely-suppressed rage and desire. Like Gangs, it's about men whose violence is rooted in wounded pride and thwarted need.

But It moves at a glacial pace and withholds its emotional beats. If you want plot momentum and clarity of character, this will frustrate you. Some find it mannered and cold.

Satya1998

Ram Gopal Varma's urban crime saga has the same fractured, immersive style and treats Mumbai's underworld as a complete ecosystem. It's rawer than Gangs but equally ambitious in scope.

But The print quality can be grainy and the dialogue-heavy scenes test patience. The ending feels abrupt if you're not prepared for it.

The Raid 22014

A crime epic with Gangs' refusal to moralise its violence and a similar focus on family allegiances and shifting loyalties. The action sequences are astonishing.

But It's primarily an action film—stylized and kinetic where Gangs is grounded. Some find the plot secondary to the fight choreography, which it basically is.

Fukrey2013

A smaller-scale crime caper that shares Gangs' ear for dialect and its ability to find humour in criminals without mocking them. It's loose and funny where Gangs is epic.

But The tonal shift is jarring if you're coming from Gangs' intensity. It's lighter, sometimes too broad, and less interested in consequences.

Johnny Gaddaar2007

A taut, clever heist film with an ensemble cast and the same interest in how betrayal works within criminal hierarchies. It trusts the audience to keep up with a complex plot.

But It's tightly plotted to the point of feeling mechanical. Some find it too clever for its own good, and the emotional stakes never quite match the narrative ingenuity.

Rang De Basanti2006

Though it's ostensibly a youth drama, it shares Gangs' interest in how patriotism and violence become intertwined, and how ordinary people are capable of extraordinary acts when pushed.

But It's a three-hour ensemble drama that shifts tone repeatedly. The romance subplots take significant time, and the final act pivots the entire film's moral framework.

Dekalog1989

Both are interested in how violence and theft ripple through communities. Both treat morality as genuinely complicated rather than obvious. Both use crime as a framework for asking bigger questions about human nature and family obligation.

A ten-hour Polish cycle of philosophical crime dramas, each exploring a moral question through the lives of ordinary people in an apartment block. It has Gangs' seriousness about consequences and its refusal to judge its characters.

But It's dense, slow, and structured around moral philosophy rather than plot momentum. Each episode is self-contained, so commitment is episodic. The aesthetic is deliberately austere.

Kumbalangi Nights2019

Both films centre on brothers and the violence that erupts when family loyalty collides with individual need. Both use regional specificity as a character itself—dialect, landscape, local politics all matter. Both understand that the worst damage is inflicted by the people closest to you.

A Malayalam film about four brothers, violence, shame and redemption set across a single place. It has Gangs' dark humour, its attention to how family bonds both anchor and destroy us, and its refusal to judge its men.

But It's in Malayalam with subtitles. The tonal whiplash between comedy and violence may unsettle you. The resolution leans toward sentiment in a way Gangs doesn't.