Despite rushing their lunches and scuttling between interviews at Juhu’s JW Marriott, the cast of Amazon Prime’s gangster series Mirzapur are visibly excited. When we sit down to chat, Pankaj Tripathi says in his chaste Hindi, “What I love about this show is that all of its talents are ‘outsiders’. There is no one from a ‘filmy family’!” Tripathi is almost correct. The talented ensemble includes him, Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey, Rasika Dugal, Divyendu Sharma, Shriya Pilgaonkar (whose parents are actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar), Shweta Tripathi and Harshita Gaur.
Family ties
While Mirzapur is about gangsters, the series explores strained familial relationships through the stories of the Tripathis, Pandits and Guptas. Events force two young ambitious brothers Guddu and Bablu Pandit (Fazal and Massey) to cross paths with Kaleen bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) — a don who runs the city with a carpet business that acts as a front for criminal dealings. At home, however, an errant son and unfulfilled wife, who makes her disappointment clear, indicate that the gangster is not entirely in control of his surroundings.
“When we were shooting in the Tripathi house,” explains Pankaj, “in that low lighting, with these wandering people, sometimes I’d see Macbeth, sometimes I’d see her,” he says, gesturing towards Dugal who plays his inscrutable young wife, Beena. Sharma, who plays the Tripathi scion, Munna adds, “There was something scary about the stillness of the house. It was like something invisible breathing — I think that’s the darkness of the characters. Our family is [worse than] dysfunctional.”
Far from sleepy
Though the Tripathis’ carpet business is a nod to what the original city in Uttar Pradesh is celebrated for, Mirzapur was mostly shot in neighbouring cities — including Varanasi and Bhadohi. Fazal says, “We’ve created a fictional world, but there was something very poetic about the name.” Massey agrees and adds, “You can call it a sleepy town, but a lot is happening below the surface.”
Gaur, who portrays the role of Dimpy, the Pandit duo’s sister, shares that her maternal grandparents are actually from Mirzapur. “I know my nani (grandmother) was [once held] at gunpoint. But these things really used to happen back then, though I’m not sure what it’s like now,” she says referring to the show’s unpredictable violence. Massey, however, has a different take on the series’ brutality. “A lot of the action is very metaphorical,” he says, “Let’s not see just this as an action-drama series. Let’s also see this as two brothers from simple middle class families, who have had aspirations in life.”
Gritty appeal
While the show does delve into multiple narratives, it is rooted in the grittiness of India’s hinterlands. The dramatic saga joins the ranks of other gangster films and series that have proven to be wildly popular with audiences — from Anurag Kashyap’s two Gangs of Wasseypur films (2012) to, more recently, Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane’s Netflix thriller series, Sacred Games. On why this genre holds intrigue, Dugal suggests that it lends itself to experimentation. “Most of the play for the genre is [in the] visuals. It can be too much or too little, but with a show like Fargo it was so beautifully done,” she says, noting the quirky crime drama before adding, “Cinematically and technically it is a delight for everyone to experiment with.”
But the gangster genre is known to build a world of hegemonic masculinity. In that context, Dugal says, “I’ve hardly seen roles in which a woman’s sexuality is just acknowledged and not made a big deal of. Usually women are either objects of titillation, of sympathy, or are being controlled by the narrative of men in their life. Though I still feel the screen [time] is less, the [female characters] are very well written.” Pilgaonkar and Shweta Tripathi, whose Sweety and Golu Gupta are the Pandit brothers’ counterparts, agree. “Everybody has a mind of their own,” says Shweta. Pilgaonkar shares, “Even if the women don’t have as much screen time, whatever [our characters] are doing, we are influencing the plot in a very strong way. And if that wouldn’t happen, we wouldn’t be on the show. In fact, Shweta and I were talking about how we would like to play gangster sisters!”
Promising future
For now, the actors appear to be most excited about the reach of an OTT platform. “You get direct feedback,” says Pilgaonkar about the unique involvement audiences feel while streaming shows on their laptop, as opposed to watching a film in a theatre. Massey adds, “You get an opportunity to up your own game and compete with global giants, and also put your skill sets out in terms of what we are capable of doing.” With a second season already in the works, there is more scope for exactly that.
Mirzapur is streaming on Amazon Prime