The Bhai Culture
Bhais, Khokha, Peti, Supari are certain Indian terminologies beyond the knowledge of the world population and most Indians, barring those from Mumbai. Its only been in the last 20 years that the whole nation is familiar with them.
Bhai: (n) ruffian, gangster, literallly means brother.
Khokha- One lakh rupees, literally means a box
Peti- One crore rupees, literally means a large box
Supari- contract handed out by one party to a gang or gangster to kill person/s
Amitabh Bachchan as underworld don Vijay
The Mumbai mafia is now an integral part of Mumbai culture. It began in 1940 when Afghan ganglords started whorehouses exclusively for the ruling British. Soon their activities included smuggling, extortion and contract killing. The mafia kept up with the changing city rapidly establishing a stronghold over it. Much blood was split due to gangwar on Mumbai streets.
The 80s and 90s were particularly marked with an escaled scale of gang activity. One of the biggest dons Dawood Ibrahim was allegedly behind the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts which claimed 150 lives while the subsequent riots flamed by mafia claimed 257 lives. Over the years the mafia suffered from fragmentation and by 2001, although very much existent, no more has the same stronghold it did for 60 years.
Amitabh Bachchan again as Don
The two iconic movies of the 80s were Deewar and Don. Deewar has actor Amitabh Bachchan as an underworld who was an underworld don, outlining the former category. Don (again with Bachchan) was focussed around the glamourous lifestyle of underworld kingpin surrounded by his female moll, loyal croonies and wanted by the police. The most famous dialogue aptly describes the mafia potrayal. “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, naa mumkin hai” (It is not just tough to catch the don but impossible to do so)
Sanjay Gupta, producer-director who is known for the stylised action movies he creates, says “Earlier in this genre, Bollywood was only aping the west. Our underworld was largely dacoits. We started having this particular theme of Mumbai mafia only from the 80s onwards.”
Gupta still contests the depiction of reality. He says, “We have never gotten realistic cause what is real is very unglamourous, stark and boring. The way actual gangsters live has nothing to do with what we show.”
The man who changed this glamourisation of the underworld was Ram Gopal Varma. He entered the industry with the superhit Rangeela a love story however went on to create some of the most critically acclaimed movies of the underworld. The biggest feature common to them all - reality.
Director Ram Gopal Varma
Since childhood, Ramu as he is popularly known as was drawn to power and he believes this is where his underworld fascination comes from. “You may be a social peaceloving person but you are still attracted to someone in power, whether to you look up or down at him. In school, one is scared of bullies. In a neighbourhood, if there is a gangster who lives by his own rules, good or bad, you can’t ignore him. That’s power,” he says.
His first foray into the underworld was Satya in 1998. On how the conceptualisation, Ramu says,
“In 1997, a man was killed by gangsters. I happened to be with a policeman friend who was discussing how what the victim was upto before he died. There it stuck me, what about the killer? What was he doing before he committed the crime, did he have breakfast etc. I realised the only time we ever heard about the killers was when they committed the crime or were caught by the police.”
Satya chronicles the life of Chakravarthi (J.D Chakravarthy) an honest man jailed for no wrongdoing and soon becoming one of the most wanted hitman. He also falls in love with struggling singer Vidhya who is unaware of his profession. With police closing in on him, does he convince Vidhya to escape with him, forms the movie synopsis.
Scene from Satya plotting killing of Mumbai police commissioner
Inspite of having two very strong writers Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla, Ramu believes the script is improvised making the film so real.
Satya shook the industry. Never before has Bollywood reality actually been real. Sunday Mid-day hailed it as “India’s first gangsta film attempting to penetrate the whys of criminality”. The Times of India gave it a five star rating saying “nothing but the truth.”
Komal Nahata, film critic and film trade analyst describes it as “landmark and cult.”
His next underworld venture Company explained the working of the underworld inspired from the real life don Dawood Ibrahim and his famous split up from associate Chota Rajan. “There was so much material left after researching Satya.” The movie’s precise portrayal of the don’s business model was praised. Also Manisha Koirala and Antara Mali’s characters showed the change in depiction of mafia women. The underworld moll which earlier was usually added to up the glamour and sex quotient was now an intelligent woman aware of her partner’s profession providing inputs and emotional support.
OST Company- Ganda hai par dhandha (its dirty but its business)
With D which flopped, Ramu had created his underworld trilogy which he says was not a consious decision. The next big mainstream underworld movie was Farhan Akhtar’s Don which was a remake of the 70s hit starring superstar Shah Rukh Khan. It returned to the stylised extravagant approach earlier used. It fared well in India doing more business internationally. Nahata attributes this to the Shah Rukh Khan factor. “The international audiences love him”
Financially Ramu’s budget has been rather modest in contrast to usual Bollywood fare. On the other hand Sanjay Gupta is known for lavish sets, multi star-cast and no-expense spared style budget. He believes there is definitely a market for his genre. “If these films didnt work, I wouldn’t be sitting in this grand office right now.” Nahata believes such movies are profitable but you cannot expect a blockbuster. He says,
“There is a section of audience who wants reality but 90% of Indians still want their cinema to be ‘masala’ entertainment. The international audience is more traditional preferring song-and-dance, ostentatious weddings and typical Indian mileu films. Hence movies on the underworld have a limited appeal not appealing to a wide spectrum of audience.”
