Mirzapur The Movie review: Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Pankaj Tripathi return with guns, gaalis, max aura in entertaining saga

The second win is having Puneet Krishna, who created and wrote the series, back to write this three-and-a-half-hour saga. Helping matters further is that the film is directed by Gurmeet Singh, who was also a core member of the original series team.

The plot wastes no time on backstories. Bablu and Guddu (Jitendra Kumar and Ali Fazal, respectively), the left and the right hand of Kaleen Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), are still at loggerheads with his son, Munna (Divyenndu). Enter Babban Yadav (Ravi Kishan), who is on the run after stealing drugs from his employer and wants to sell it to Kaleen bhaiya. Also eyeing the throne of Mirzapur, he baits Kaleen into stepping outside city limits so he can execute his plan. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Having Puneet Krishna return for the big-screen version ensures that the film truly understands its characters and the peculiar flavour of the Mirzapur universe. That familiarity goes a long way in helping it recreate the gangster saga audiences liked, rather than feeling like an extended spin-off wearing the show’s name.