From the look of its trailer, "Mirzapur" -- Amazon's new bust-or-boom series -- promises a fusillade of flamboyant fights and bloodshed.
First things first. It feels reassuring and comforting to see the very gifted Pankaj Tripathi finally taking centrestage. He was plainly riveting as the Shakespearean mafia don in Shankar Raman's "Gurgaon". He returns to play a restless crimelord with a problematic son in "Mirzapur".
It's a world that perhaps Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorcese would approve of. There is sly deceit and tormenting treachery as Tripathy's Kaleen Bhai (he deals in carpets) tries to control his wild son, played by that extraordinarily credible actor Divyendu Sharma, last seen stealing every scene from Shahid Kapoor in "Batti Gul Meter Chalu". I suspect there are only scene-steelers, no scene-stealers in "Mirzapur".
Divyendu is the Sonny Corleone of this sanguinary saga of internecine wars where I suspect most characters would lie dead at the end of the series. Till then, the show offers us dollops of aggression and trippy retribution served up with a dash of humorous relish.
I like the way Ali Fazal has bulked up and trimmed his hair to look menacing and the super-talented Vikrant Massey looks positively mousy as his sibling. These two brothers promise to turn the rugged terrain of "Mirzapur" into an area of a subverted Mahabharat.
The series is splattered with superb actors. Rasika Dugal turns up as Pankaj Tripathi's sex-starved wife reminding him that he always leaves her unfulfilled.
I suspect we won't come away from the series with that feeling.
