First things first. Those who thought that there was very little juice left in the Mirzapur series–which started with a bang in 2018, stayed steady in its 2020 second season, and dwindled by its third in 2024 — and that included me, were off the mark.

The worst part about the third season, weighed under by distinct signs of wear and tear, was the near-absence of Pankaj Tripathi in and as Kaleen Bhaiyya, whose crafty game of thrones gave us a whole new vocabulary– the alliterative bauchaar of bhaiyya, bahubali, bhaukaal, along with the enthusiastic sprinkling of maas and behens was relentless.

I’m happy to report that Kaleen Bhaiyya is back. Smart move, because without him, I would have had zero interest in the goings-on in this Gangs of Wasseypur lite saga. Much of the old cast is back too. Munna (Divyenndu), the son and putative heir of the Mirzapur gaddi, is still struggling for his daddy’s approval. Guddu (Ali Fazal) and Bablu (Jitendra Kumar replacing Vikrant Massey), the two local lads drawn into Kaleen Bhaiyya’s seductive orbit, are still up against their straight-laced father’s (Rajesh Tailang) disapproval. The battle for the Mirzapur gaddi, an ongoing pursuit, pitchforks a few new characters into the mix, chief of which is Ravi Kishan as Babban Yadav, the ambitious nephew of a greedy politician, with an eye on the main chance.

The challenge facing director Gurmmeet Singh and writer Puneet Krishna was always going to be to land on the right balance of the familiar and fresh: on that score, Mirzapur The Movie powers through the 197 minutes, letting us feel the length in some patches which feel both superfluous and rushed: and no, just because it’s a film, we don’t need an item song, or two. Just no.

In a series split over six years and three seasons, it’s easy to leisurely build your characters and situations. A nearly-four hour film, despite its length, needs to scrunch, and can yet be in danger of feeling like a stretch.

Predictably, in this all-boys’ show, it’s the women whose presence is scaled down. It begins with Sweety (Shriya Pilgaonkar) and Golu (Shweta Tripathi) as the sisters Guddu and Bablu are sweet on: I’m just relieved that Golu’s completely unconvincing progress towards a tough-talking, gun-toting female don is scotched in the bud, one of my other bugbear’s in the third season. As the boys’ sister, Dimpy (Harshita Gaur) is barely there. Sonal Chauhan has a longer part as Mumtaz Bibi, Babban’s woman. But it is Sheeba Chadha, as Guddu-Bablu’s feisty mother, who makes the most of her delicious line: tumhein pataa hai main kiski maa hoon?

To begin with, it’s hard to think of Jitendra Kumar in place of Vikrant Massey, but it’s been a while, so we let the former settle into his groove, and hope that Sachivji-in-his-new-avatar will get better at hefting a gun. I’m a little conflicted about Ravi Kishan’s presence here, who is now so ubiquitous as the self-proclaimed ‘national crush’, believe it or faint, that he’s hard to take in as a wannabe Purvanchali Bahubali. But he’s always easy to watch, so that makes up for it. Somewhat.

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There’s also the thing about toning things down, both as a result of audience fatigue with gaalis and coarseness, as well as depicting frequent sequences of men and women rutting in dim parlours with their domestics spying on them. This is something only those of us who’ve seen the show will be able to pinpoint: those who’ve lived under a streaming rock, and come upon the movie with new eyes, may still have the capacity to be shocked.

But either way, it is the original trifecta which is still the most effective: Pankaj Tripathi as Kaleen Bhaiyya whose varchasva is barkaraar, Divyenndu as Munna, whose prowess in the sack is more impressive, according to his own self, than in the field, and Ali Fazal, the body-building giant with a soft heart. And, of course, the marvellous Rasika Dugal, as the Tripathi khandaan-ki-bahu, who both wins and loses. How about giving her story a stand-alone spin-off?

Net net, I quite enjoyed Mirzapur The Movie because it knows how to stay in its lane, papering over its flabby bits with continual speedy spurts and an intriguing climax. Will there be a Mirzapur The Movie part 2? Questions, questions.

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Mirzapur The Movie cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Ravi Kishan, Jitendra Kumar, Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chadha, Abhishek Banerjee, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Shweta Tripathi, Harshita Gaur, Sonal Chauhan, Rajesh Tailang, Sushant Singh, Mohit Malik, Kulbhushan Kharbanda


Mirzapur The Movie director: Gurmmeet Singh


Mirzapur The Movie rating: Three stars