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.

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.

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.

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

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.