MUMBAI: After I finished watching the second and final part of Anurag Kashyap’s revenge saga “Gangs of Wasseypur“, I got into a cab and headed home. Except that, when I got in, I imagined the driver pulling out a machine gun and aiming at me.

On the way home, familiar roads seemed eerily silent and every passer-by suspicious. So ingrained and pervading is the violence in this film that you cannot help but carry a bit of it home.

And isn’t that what a good film should do?

In “Gangs of Wasseypur 2″, Kashyap gives us the ingredient that was missing in the first — some serious action. There is lots of bloodshed in this one — and all of it Bollywood style.

Kashyap has no qualms about his homage to the 1980s masala films of Bollywood, weaving in elements in almost every scene — from an orchestra belting out songs at a funeral to characters aping their favorite heroes. Even the blood is obviously fake in the film, but it’s all part of the over-the-top feel.

The film takes off from where the first left — the murder of Sardar Khan by Sultan Qureshi, but to be honest, to narrate the plot would be to spoil the film — it would be easier to let it unfold for you.

Also, there isn’t too much of a story to narrate — this is a film you should enjoy for its moments. Indeed at times, Kashyap takes a somewhat lazy route and uses a voiceover to explain major plot points, concentrating instead on making his scenes as stylish and edgy as possible.

For example, the terror that Faisal (the protagonist in the film and Sardar’s younger son) is supposed to generate, after just one murder is explained away too convincingly and carelessly.

The story unfolds at its own pace and Kashyap is his usual indulgent self, taking his own sweet time to set up the rather inevitable climax scene between Faisal and Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia). If you think about it, many of the characters and plot points could have been done without, but how then would we have moments like the scooter chase through narrow roads and a hilarious phone conversation on three phones?

Like a character in the film says “har ek ke dimaag mein apni hi picture chal rahi hoti hai” (Everyone has their own movie playing inside their head) — and this is very true of “Gangs of Wasseypur 2″. There are many films within one here and you could identify with any one.

Several characters are introduced, with names like Perpendicular and Tangent, but the one that will stay with you is Definite, so named because he tells someone that he knows what his definite aim in life is. Played by the film’s co-writer Zeishan Quadri, this is a character that will stay with you for a while.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the perfect action hero — as Faisal, he is flawless. And he doesn’t need to rip off his shirt even once. I don’t want to say much, except, watch his eyes in his last scene. You’ll know what is going to happen even before it does, because his eyes express it so well.

This is a somewhat drawn-out end to the Wasseypur story, but for Kashyap’s control over his craft and for Siddiqui’s complete mastery over his, this one is a must watch. AGENCIES