Yet it is the excess that suffocates all the magic, originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples the film. There is a lot of gunfire, but like the fine actors populating its sets, Wasseypur fires too many blanks.

If there is one thing for sure this film is both a history and geography lesson of Wasseypur. As Anurag said himself as the London preview screening “If you Google search Wasseypur the place will not come up, only the film will!” He has clearly put Wasseypur on the map and I, like many, will reserve my final judgement until I watch the second part.