Warning: If the rustic gore in Gangs of Wasseypur part 1 made you queasy, then Gangs of Wasseypur part 2 will not serve you any better. Part 2 takes the bloodied saga a notch higher. For those of us who wait patiently for Indian noir to push the envelope mainstream, here is another fist pump moment. If blood was spilt in GoWpart 1, it squirts in part 2. Revolvers and tamanchasgive way to AK47s and grenades.

Taking off from Sardar Khan’s (Manoj Bajpai) death, part 2 starts with the chillum-puffing underdog of a son Faizal Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) stepping up to avenge the death of his forefathers. He is the oddball, a skinny stoner, who hesitatingly rises up to accept his fate, with a lot of understated chutzpah. “He is assisted by his brothers — the blade-chewing Perpendicular (Aditya Kumar) and the Salman ‘Tere Naam’ Khan spoof Definite (Zeishan Qadri) — along with Tangent (Sankalp), each with a notoriety that outwits the other.”

Mohsina (Huma Qureshi) is a graceful and gorgeous presence, but none of the women (including Reemma Sen’s Durga) manage to stand up to Richa Chadda’s Nagma Khatoon. Her expletive-ridden angst is such a delight.

Ramadhir Singh (Timangshu Dhulia) as the beefy schemer gives us probably one of the best cinematic moments of a poised loser, instantaneously stealing Siddiqui’s thunder. This being a story in contemporary times is grimier in the exchange of fire, where hands from either side change camps faster than one loads the magazines. The vengeance is slow but cathartic and there are moments where your mind goes, “Smash! Bang! Kill!”

Sneha Khanwalkar’s music, that marries folk with dub-steps, carves out its own pseudo-narrative character. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography eases itself on the documentary bit and instead focuses on colourful gore. The art department builds what is a kitsch-lover’s delight.

With GoW part 2, Kashyap celebrates (or maybe mocks) Indian cinema of the 1990s. There are liberal mentions of Bollywood blockbusters, ending in Dhulia’s character telling us, “Saala India mein jab tak saneema hai, tab tak sab c*****a bante raheinge.”

Reams of paper have discussed Kashyap’s faux pas alternate universe. But, one must give the man his due. Many shots are cluttered, characters trying their best to wrestle out their moment in the presence of others. There is blood (which lands the movie with an ‘A’ certificate), there is ribaldry and there is a huge mess of inter-politics. Even then, this is a movie that makes you feel happy, because it locks horns with risk, and pushed the boundaries. It works better than GoW part 1 did.

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