Gunda - Review

There are two kinds of people in this world …. those who have watched Gunda and those who will watch Gunda.

A hundred-thousand reviews have been penned for this poetic genius of a film (why poetic, because every second line in the film rhymes with the next). So if you have already read one review, please treat this as another of the humble offerings to this masterclass.

Honestly, I have not seen the complete film. But then you do not need to. In fact, the greatness of the film is that even if you watched the film backwards, or from the middle or from any other part that you chose to, you shall not miss the story. Therein lies the mahima of Prabhuji (Mithun Chakraborty).

Gunda is a heartfelt rendition of the perilous path traversed by gundas before and after going to bed everyday. I did not know that such a film existed till about six months ago, when on the occasion of a colleague’s wedding, another colleague snubbed my knowledge of hindi movies.

From that day on, I have been trying to get a glimpse of this much-talked about epic. But since I am no gunda, I live a normal life of toil and fatigue and hardly get to catch up on the golden oldies.

Till about a week ago, when I visited youtube and clicked on the title “Gunda movie – part 1”. I have gone into a trance ever since and can see, hear and speak only gunda movie dialogues. I assure that anyone in my place would have felt the same.

I believe this film got completed in less than a week; it could have actually got completed in 2 days but I will give leeway for carrying the equipment across tarmacs, shipyards, coal mines, deserted muhallas and many other locations which are otherwise not actually required.

So it begins on a tarmac with a neta introducing us viewers to an approaching gunda by name of Lambu Aatta who is just over 4.5 feet. Such honour to the vertically challenged has hardly been seen in any other film. A murder later, the next scene introduces us to four gundas who introduce themselves as follows:

Mera naam hai Bullaaaa … rakhta hoon hamesha khullaaaa !!! (actor – Mukesh Rishi)

Mera naam hai Chutiya (tuft of hair, what were you thinking?) acche acchon ki khadi karta hoon khatiya !!! (actor – Shakti Kapoor)

Hum hain Pote, jo apne baap ke bhi nahin hote !!! (actor – Mohan Joshi)

Mera naam Ibu Hatela, maa meri chudail ki beti, baap shaitaan ka chela, khayega kela !!!
(actor – Harish Patel)


The poetry adds an assortment of colours to your face just as the swish of the artist’s brush adds colours to a canvass.

Next 2-3 scenes involve the killing of Lambu Aatta’s brother, Bulla’s sister and finally Lambu Aatta himself.

Immediately after Lambu’s death, the scene cuts to another neta by name Bacchubhai Bhigona (actor – Deepak Shirke) staring into the camera, raving and ranting about the killing and in the same tone snubbing Bulla:

Bulla tune khullam khulla Lambu Aatey ko maut ke tavay pe senkh diya … aur uski laash ko Worli ke gutter mein phenkh diya … lekin dilli se aanewale jis neta ki maine tujhe supaari di thi, tune use nahin maara, tune use kyon nahin maara?

(this entire dialogue is mouthed with such seriousness that you can only close your moistening eyes and clap)

By this time I was so engulfed with emotion (read laughter) that I could hardly go beyond. But then I had to see the scene where Prabuji made his godly entry. So I watched on for one more scene … and was not disappointed.

In the next scene, the neta from the first scene is killed by Kala Shetty, one of Bulla’s rowdy henchmen. Kala easily accomplishes the task by nonchalantly walking up to neta who is surrounded by 15 policemen and then as they freeze for no apparent reason, he knives neta and then runs off. But as he runs, from Vidhan Sabha to airport in 5 seconds, chased by the now recovered policemen, he is grabbed by an iron hand and thrown to the ground.

Camera zooms from right to left (twice) to show Prabhuji, decked as a coolie, at the airport!!!

After the mandatory ‘kaun he be tu?’ from Kala, a flooring response:

“Main hoon jurm se nafrat karne wala, sharifon ke liye jyoti, gundon ke liye jwala”


Beyond this I could not watch, but I shall make an attempt to over the next few weeks. As you can see, I am only through 6-7 scenes into the film and am already drained of all speech and quivering with emotion. Truth be told, you just cannot sit through the entire film at one go.

One other thing that is so powerful about the dialogues is the way they treat the word “maut” (death). Sample this:

Tujhe doonga maut ka chaanta (slap of death)

Chathi main ghusa doonga maut ka bhaala (spear of death)

Maut ke rath par (chariot of death)

Etc, etc, etc …

For the remainder of the epic, a few weeks of waiting is in itself homage to Prabhuji.