Meeruthiya Gangsters Movie Reviews

Unlike director Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante (2002), which was a rather dingy copy of Reservoir Dogs, Quadri’s film is a homage to that film. It has a story to tell, its own story that’s rooted in the place it is set in — Meerut, a third-tier city, Delhi’s second cousin, twice removed. It’s an interesting story and it belongs to its characters. But the style it chooses to tell this story is borrowed. Intelligently, yes. And fun. But it’s not germane to its story and people.

Each actor delivers a competent performance. Though at places it seems to be trying too hard, ‘Meeruthiya Gangsters’ is mostly a delightful comedy which keeps you constantly entertained with its relentless pace and casual approach towards everything, including their ends. Good one time watch, for sure.

the film falters primarily because of a very wobbly narrative which keeps introducing too many characters, too many sub plots till the end. The film’s climax has zero build up and you almost know how it is all going to end.

Telling a convoluted saga of ambition, greed and friendship, Meeruthiya Gangsters fails to keep a grip on its central plot. The angles are bang on, but Zeishan fails to add gravity to his story that could have kept the audience hooked and involved with the story of his otherwise identifiable characters. Much of our disappointment stems from the fact that this comes from the same writer who penned Gangs of Wasseypur.

If you loved the Gangs of Wasseypur movies, you’ll find Meeruthiya Gangsters engaging in parts. Not a bad attempt at all for a debutant director.

With modest production values, Naren Gedia’s camera work captures the essence of the film decently. But it is the initial lengthy single shot, taken on a rotating trolley in the canteen scene, which is an eye-sore.Overall, Meeruthiya Gangsters offers nothing exceptional.

Meeruthiya Gangsters has flashes of Quadri’s brilliance, but the underwhelming script squanders all potential.

Meeruthiya Gangsters is an easily avoidable film as it offers nothing but a hap-hazard story, direction and acting too.

It’s hard to not see the influence of Anurag Kashyap, who enjoys credits not only as a presenter but even as an editor. Kashyap’s style here sees a few slo-mos and a pivotal gun fight sequence unfolding in fast motion. But these techniques don’t make for a gripping watch. Instead it is Qadri, who wrote and acted in Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, who occasionally shows promise and lifts the film with a few amusing scenarios in which the lads pull each other’s legs.

Debutant director Zeishan Quadri makes all the classical mistakes of a first-timer. To begin with, he seems too consumed with the idea of infusing humour in tense sequences. This would’ve worked if the jabs were sharp and didn’t undermine or diffuse the magnitude of the scene. Here, they only serve as a distraction. Secondly, when you seamlessly capture an entire scene in a single shot, you may pat yourself on the back. But when you repeatedly do it, it seems like a gimmick and that you’re doing it just because you can.

The movie is so far from being the zippy crime caper it presumably set out to be that it leaves you stranded, wondering just what is going on.

Partly because of the script and partly because of the editing, Meeruthiya Gangster moves forward awkwardly and unevenly… If coherence isn’t something you require from a film, then Meeruthiya Gangsters ambles along from crime to crime with stopovers in bars for some ear-shattering songs.

If you’re a fan of the Anurag Kashyap school of cinema, you should not give Meeruthiya Gangsters a miss. Do not expect the world from it and you will not be disappointed. This movie is what it sets out to be – a definite entertainer.

Quadri tries to paint a picture of a lawless town and how this group of youngsters benefit from it and later pay the price for it, but his focus is missing. Like an errant driver, he keeps veering off the path, never sure which direction he should be taking. There are some moments of dry humour, and actors Jaideep Ahlawat and Shadaab Kamal distinguish themselves from the rest of the cast. But these are just a couple of positives that are not enough to keep this ship from sinking.

…the plot goes nowhere and the camera goes everywhere—there’s a tracking shot or an unusual angle in almost every scene, giving the impression that Quadri is straining for effect. There’s also little of the sociological and historical context that underpinned the equally violent and jocular Wasseypur. Still, there’s just enough here to suggest that Quadri has a future as a screenwriter. Direction, though, may require a little work.

…the 128-minute takes its own sweet time to get around to whatever it wants to convey – which is, in its cheerfully nihilistic way, nothing. As six kidnappers hatch frequent plots to amass money in the canteen of the college where they are supposedly enrolled as students, the screenplay luxuriates in their insouciant banter and complete lack of urgency.