As had happened during prohibition in the US, local gangs moved in on the trade. “Aunty bars"-speakeasies run by women-supplied patrons with illicit liquor. Prohibition was enforced in Bombay state in 1949. 44 (19, Dev Anand as a pickpocket), Awaara (1951, Raj Kapoor as a small-time thief), Shree 420 and Baazi (19-Kapoor and Anand, respectively, as card-sharps). You can see this reflected in the crime films of the 1940s and 1950s, like Kismet (1943, Ashok Kumar as a pickpocket), Sangram (1950, Ashok Kumar as a casino owner), Pocket Maar and House No. Initially, it was petty thievery and pickpocketing, mugging and the odd planned robbery. This meant a larger unemployed population in the city’s working-class neighbourhoods. In the years before and after independence, migrants started arriving in Mumbai from all over India. Still, it’s an opportune moment to look back at the circuitous path the Hindi film gangster, and the Hindi gangster film, have taken.
Perhaps those winds will blow north, as they did when Anurag Kashyap dedicated his Gangs Of Wasseypur to the “Madurai triumvirate" of Bala, Ameer and Sasikumar. One only need look at Tamil and Malayalam cinema, which churn out spectacular gangster films on a regular basis.
It may not quite be time to pronounce the death of the big-screen gangster.
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