Guns, goons, loads of gaalis, dirty politics, blood-lust - Welcome to Mirzapur. The second round of Mirzapur is here, upping the game of chess which is a slow burner but keeps you engaged throughout the series. The makers have milked Season 1's equity heavily and to a great extent, they have succeeded in making people anxiously wait for the show to take off. The second season takes off exactly where it ended but this time, it takes the route of revenge. In fact, it kickstarts with even more violence that instantly grabs your attention. For the uninitiated, in the concluding episode of Mirzapur season 1, Golu (Shweta Tripathi) wins the college election against Munna (Divyendu Sharmaa) and the entire Pandit family heads off to Dimpy’s friend’s wedding. On the other hand, Munna is looking for Guddu (Ali Fazal) and Bablu (Vikrant Massey) to kill them. After gate-crashing the wedding, Munna kills Sweety and Bablu in the violent shootout sequence and Guddu and Golu along with Dimpy manage to escape.
In the second season of Mirzapur, Guddu and Golu are on their revenge journey as they want to avenge Sweety and Bablu's death by assassinating Munna bhaiyaa and destroying Kaleen's empire in the city. We saw some favourite characters dying in the blood-soaked finale of Mirzapur while we get to see some notable new faces this season that intensify the show even more. In this game of cat and mouse, though it takes a long convoluted way to figure out who’s the cat and who’s the mouse, the prize remains the same, from last season — the reign of Mirzapur. Mirzapur 2 gets more brutal and dirtier with Guddu in kill-mode along with Golu who has also turned brutal and ready to assassinate the father-son duo. On the other hand, Munna who is the heir to the empire is set to change some old rules. Season two is essentially a feud between four sets of fathers and their sons - The Pandits, The Tripathis, the Shuklas and the Tyagis - and all the father-son duo in all these clans are at loggerheads.
If you like Godfather or any crime mafia films and shows, then Mirzapur 2's look and feel are somewhat like them. A lot of them mouthing the one-liners are also bound to become the talk of the town. With every scene, the dialoguebaazi gets heavier which has a lot of depth and meaning in it. Speaking of direction, Gurmmeet Singh and Mihir Desai have taken some bold decisions but the essence of Mirzapur is intact taking the revenge tadka to the next level.
Pankaj Tripathi reprising his Kaleen Bhaiya role once again managed to excel and has left us dumbfounded. His stoic expressions, one-liners and that undertone humour, Pankaj as Kaleen Bhaiya is effortless. Unlike his son, Kaleen is more composed and calm but knows how this game works and knows how to rule Mirzapur with utmost confidence. While his son Munna Bhaiya is a madhouse, we cannot see anyone pulling off this character other than Divyendu Sharmaa. He is a spoiled brat and a grenade on the loose who seems to have the most fun playing the trigger-man, however, it seemed his craziness was a bit toned down this season. This time, Munna becomes that man who will make his rules and will rule the city with or without his father's help. While Ali Fazal aka Guddu bhaiya is in the kill mode, there's nothing new to offer to this character. While a goody student Golu has blossomed into being bold and fierce as he now shoots 'goli' like a badass. New character Vijay Varma who plays the double role as Bharat Tyagi and Shatrughan Tyagi stand out in the show. One would definitely want to root for this actor.
Overall, the game of chess - Who to trust? Who will double-cross who? Who will win and who will lose - these will keep you hooked throughout the 10 episodes.
The marathon 10 episodes of Mirzapur 2 are binge-worthy and we give it 3 stars.
Image source : prime video