GANGS OF WASSEYPUR has a blast at 65th Festival de Cannes
Rajesh Kumar Singh, Glamsham Editorial
The much-awaited five and a half hour long two-part crime-land epic helmed by Anurag Kashyap opened to a packed house at Theatre Croisette JW Marriott on 23rd May. It was the world premiere of the film prior to its 22nd June domestic release. With this Anurag Kashyap joined an impressive list of film directors who have the honour to showcase their work in the Directors' Fortnight, an important side bar event at Cannes. The list includes the biggest names of world cinema like Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Ken Loach, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, Chantal Akerman, Spike Lee, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Sofia Coppola, Robert Bresson, Manoel de Oliveira, Stephen Frears, Jerzy Skolimowski, William Friedkin, and Francis Ford Coppola.
Almost the entire cast and crew of the film were present on the occasion led by the film's director, writer, and producer Anurag Kashyap and actors Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Quereshi, Richa Chaddha, Reema Sen, Jaideep Ahlawat, Piyush Mishra, and the others. The jam-packed screening saw every Indian who is at Cannes this year making it a point to be at the venue and be counted. The normal Cannes audience and the foreign media were also present in large numbers.
It was a pleasant surprise to find some hard-core fans of the director enthusiastically screaming, and applauding for him among the mixed crowd. Touted as the first mainstream Bollywood film to be screened at a prestigious world film festival, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR left the audience awestruck and dumbfounded with quite a few of them staying back to watch both the parts of the film.
The film is presented by one of India's leading integrated film companies, Viacom18 Motion Pictures and produced by Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd. (AKFPL). It's international sales is handled by Elle Driver.
