{"id":2441,"date":"2018-11-14T16:24:34","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=2441"},"modified":"2018-11-14T16:24:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:24:34","slug":"mirzapur-sacred-games-and-indias-new-wave-of-mafia-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/11\/14\/mirzapur-sacred-games-and-indias-new-wave-of-mafia-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirzapur, Sacred Games and India’s new wave of mafia TV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Indian screen gangster \u2013 long a staple in Bollywood \u2013 has evolved in recent years, with Netflix and now Amazon Prime tapping in to the country\u2019s interest in crime stories<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Rolling deep \u2026 Mirzapur. Photograph: Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n
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T<\/span><\/span>he launch of Amazon Prime\u2019s gangster saga Mirzapur marks another milestone in the evolution of the Indian screen gangster. The TV series will go head-to-head with season four of Netflix\u2019s Narcos, providing rich pickings for those wanting to see the grittier side of life outside the western world.<\/p>\n

Telling the story of a crime dynasty ruling the town of Mirzapur in the dusty outlaw hinterland of Uttar Pradesh \u2013 a vast Indian state with more than 200 million people, which has long been synonymous with\u00a0violence and corruption<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the show is the latest to feed India\u2019s perennial appetite for seeing the raw underbelly of its society on the big screen and on TV.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Anurag Kashyap (India\u2019s answer to Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese<\/a>), has made a series of bloody, hard-boiled gangster movies, including the outstanding two-part Gangs of Wasseypur \u2013 a five-and-a-half-hour epic charting the destinies of warring coal-mafias in the lawless backwaters of rural Jharkand \u2013 while Netflix launched his hugely successful Mumbai gangster series\u00a0Sacred Games<\/a>\u00a0that delved deep into the city\u2019s underworld of gaudy mobsters, sassy molls, crooked cops and politicians.<\/p>\n

India has always had larger-than-life gangsters, many of whom have provided real-life inspiration for compelling characters. Dawood Ibrahim,\u00a0one of Mumbai\u2019s most notorious villains and captain of the criminal D-Company<\/a>\u00a0gang \u2013 which was embroiled in trafficking, extortion and assassination rackets in Mumbai, as well as terrorist outrages \u2013 has had more than his fair share of Bollywood alter egos, including in the films Day and Company.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Mob rules: Netflix\u2019s Sacred Games. Photograph: Ishika Mohan Motwane\/Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Even classics of Hindi cinema have required a gangster to provide a dark weight to their morality tales. The heartbreaking Mother\u00a0India<\/a>\u00a0is a staple shown to pretty much every child at some point. It tells the story of an impoverished rural woman who struggles to raise her two sons and cope with a disabled husband without compromising her values. The movie ends with her shooting one of her sons in the back after he has grown up into a criminal and tries to ride off with a woman he has kidnapped from her village.<\/p>\n

Sholay<\/a>, the classic 1975 Bollywood action movie, is famous for having the greatest gangster in Indian cinema history. Gabbar Singh, played by the legendary Amjad Khan, is the demonic belly-laughing leader of a pack of bandits which loots and pillages villages in central India. And in a Hollywood-inspired tale that combines The Magnificent Seven with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he is brought down by a roguish pair of hoodlums \u2013 played by superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra \u2013 after they decide to go straight and help his victims. Gabbar Singh\u2019s lines are now routinely quoted in everyday life in India, and the character has been used to advertise products ranging from toothpaste to biscuits.<\/p>\n