The two epics which India is renowned for, Ramayana and Mahabharata, have one theme in common: family ties. Mirzapur capitalizes on the same to show how family relations can materialize into bloody relations, quite literally! An Amazon Prime original, Mirzapur rivals its Netflix counterpart, Sacred Games in all its violent glory.
Story
The story of Mirzapur is set in a city by the same name, in Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh) – a city whose de-facto lords are the Tripathis, whose patriarch, Akhandanand Tripathi (played by Pankaj Tripathi) a.k.a. Kaleen Bhaiyya (an allusion to his business of carpets) heads a carpet factory as a front for his drug smuggling and country-gun factory. Two brothers, Guddu (played by Ali Fazal) and Bablu Pandit (played by Vikrant Massey) form the protagonists of the story and are thrust into the power-play of the Tripathis, by an extraordinary turn of events. The tussles between multiple factions in the story, with multiple facets involving love, pride, ambition, politics, social stigmas, and most importantly, power are worth watching. The series also has strong female characters in the form of Beena Tripathi (played by Rasika Duggal) and the Gupta sisters (played by Shriya Pilgaonkar and Shweta Tripathi) who exploit their position to manipulate people, whether in a hedonistic or a selfless manner. The plotline is also fast-paced and at times, can leave viewers on tenterhooks, especially at the end of few episodes.
Cinematic Elements
Whatever aspects Mirzapur lacked in its extravagance or story, it made up with chilling (and sometimes senseless) violence and the gore that follows. One can hardly miss the antithesis brought in at times, when a wall painted with the sentence “Ummeed ka Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh” (Land of hopes: Uttar Pradesh) is seen, soon to be followed by a murder, or in another instance, bodies after a shootout lying at the feet of a wall saying, “Yuddha Nahi Buddha Karo” (Believe in the peaceful Buddha, not in fights). The soundtrack too is quite well made and is fitting for the turbulent situations portrayed in the series. Mirzapur is also well made from the cinematic perspective in that it lacks a clichéd feeling to it at times, despite having parts which might not live up to your mark.
The craze surrounding Mirzapur has been evident with a huge amount of memes circulating on the Internet, as is with most successful series. There is hardly a part in this series which can cause you boredom. Overall, this ‘Kaleen’ will take you on a whole different ride from the usual flying carpet stuff. Although only one season is out, the popularity of this series has been high and most people will wait patiently for the day of release of subsequent seasons.