Gangsters

Lunatics apart, Gangsters are the most interesting characters in this world. Due to our movies which glorify the gangsters, I have had a secret admiration over the gangsters right from my childhood. And that admiration has not changed one bit till now. They just had a wholesome presence and nothing-can-perturb-me (at least externally) attitude. I was fascinated by these aspects of theirs and always believed they were super-humans. Often I wondered how they can be so ruthless and merciless. Because you have to strong enough to be withstand the physical pain that others mete out to you and also withstand the mental pain you get because of hurting others physically (the second one is more painful than the first). Due to all these fascinations I was giving more attention to movie villains (who were mostly gangsters) rather than our goody-goody heroes. There was some magnetism in the darker shaded men that made compelling viewing. We will come back to movie gangsters in a while; cut now to some real time gangsters I have met.

These guys were small term gangsters (one of the students, normally the tallest, darkest or the fattest) in schools and colleges. Their common characteristics were that they sat on the last bench, cared two-hoots for classes and home works, never respected teachers, had a very nasty language and if required they would flex their muscles for a fight. Almost every class had one or at time more of these guys. The drabs were constantly pricked, beaten or teased. I would be looking on wondering why the hell they were doing all that. But due to my fascination to experience the other shore (darker side), I decided to become one gangster.

I made friends with some of them, voluntarily helping them with notes and etc. And they also accepted me as normally they didn’t have too many friends as everybody was afraid of them. And there I learnt the tricks of the trade (at a very smaller scale I must admit). One of the first lesions was to continuously remind others that we (gangsters) are capable of doing anything ranging from the insane to the outrageous. This was to keep the fear atop in everybody’s minds when they spoke of us. Bang a small time thug (the guy who wants to become next gangster) to reaffirm the superiority if and only if the situation demanded.

But common this was not the gangster I had in my mind. They were undaunted Lochinvars and Supermen who feared no man and nothing for that matter. But the real guys when they had to fight, they carefully chose to fight against smaller, weaker people. But once I started thinking like a grown-up rather than a wide-eyed kid and read a few books about the life of mobsters did I realize the cold truth. These are men living in far more graver danger than us and due to this they have fear incarnated in their minds like we have hunger in our bodies. And fighting with the smaller man was because of the fear that the bigger man might humiliate and disgrace them. Frankly they are the most pathetic souls you can ever meet, and they hide it by showing themselves off as stylish and fearless. But inside they are dying with the fear that they could die any moment.

After I realized this, I started to see them with more sympathy than fascination. These guys after all had all the right reasons but chose the wrong path. I sympathize with them, because they all would have had a dream just like us but then due to the circumstances they could not pursue it and ended up in the gutter they currently are currently in. And by this time the movies had started to portray the heroes as gangsters but who would have some good in them. This was a bit more interesting as it portrayed that no man has completely white or black shades but they always have a mixture of both (the gray). Apart from the commercial potboilers I got the chance to view some beautiful movies which portrayed their hardships and battle within their minds. That is what sets the gangsters apart, let alone fighting the enemy they are fighting a battle deep inside. This causes more and more pain to them and they end up in drugs, drinks and women. They also dream about living honestly but the situations and their pasts haunt them and hunt them down. It is a hard-fought battle and it still asks for compelling viewing. Given below are some of the Gangster movies and actors that I loved the most, in case you have a similar taste don’t miss them.

Al Pacino: This guy has lived a gangster’s life in the Godfather trilogy. He portrays the mental battles of Michael Corleone in an intense and yet enjoyable fashion. His Scarface was also a great attempt in portraying the brooding, paranoid soul.

Robert De Niro: The Don Vito Corleone in Godfather II. He was brilliant in that movie. He also had a very good role in the movie Goodfellas. I have heard a lot about his movie Casino, but yet to watch it.

Nayakan: Nayakan was a milestone in the history of Tamil cinema. I would have seen the movie countless times and especially for the dialogue “Naan adicha nee sethuduve” (If I hit you will die.)

Pudhupettai: Loosely based on Scarface, this is arguably the second best gangster movie in Tamil after the one I had mentioned before. It showed the hardcore realities of a gangster’s life and the dark humor associated with it.

Thalapathi: More into the friendship between two gangsters rather than their personal travails, this was still a very good movie to watch.

Gangster: Shiney Ahuja was outright brilliant in this movie though he had only half the movie (the other half had Emraan’s useless antics). If you see his beautiful face sketched with those sulking eyes and why-am-I-here-and-oh-god-what-am-I-doing look you cannot help but feel sorry for him and his position. It was one of the best performances in a gangster movie in recent times.

If I had missed any do let me know, I would be more than happy to add them and watch them as well.