Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2012: Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur

Gangs of Wasseypur – Anurag Kashyap

Buzz: Excluding the Main Comp, there’ll be a dash of curry all along the Croisette this year as India’s New Wave is taking over. Ashim Ahluwalia‘s Miss Lovely (Un Certain Regard), Vasan Bala’s Peddlers (Critics’ Week) and this year’s record holder for the longest running time (it isn’t Sergio Leone’s extended cut of Once Upon a Time in America), in Anurag Kashyap (That Girl In Yellow Boots). A ballsy, uncompromising film with a run time of 5h20 minutes might rewrite some of Bollywood’s tired rules – we’d be definitely interested in seeing at some point in time.

Gist: Wasseypur, India. The story of vengeance between two families that spans three generations. Shahid Khan loots British trains and rules over the Ramadhir Sing clan. He becomes an outcast and must work in Ramadhir Singh’s coal mines. Shahid’s son, the philandering Sardar Khan, vows to restore his father’s honor, becoming the most feared man in Waasseypur. It is Fazal Khan, the weed-addicted grandson, who wakes up to the vengeance his family has inherited.