Mirzapur. Loved and shunned in equal measure perhaps. The series is vehemently opposed by many for its gory content. But for its huge fan base, the after-feeling of Season 3 is warm still. Not to mention the twists at the fag end that have
viewers baited, hungry for the next stash of dope. Of course, there’s serious semantics involved in those twists, but more on that later.

Meeting Mirzapur director Gurmmeet Singh — over Zoom one day — is like a twist in itself. The person behind this long bloody thriller of a series — fattened with crime and suspense, addiction, power politics, profanity, unholy carnal relations — is soft-spoken, calm of demeanour and a listener. He smiles before embarking on any response.

If there were a blood and gore competition, Mirzapur would top it, I say to him. To which, Singh sets out to explain the inception. “It has been quite a journey for us. We were all used to making content for a collective audience, be it theatre, television or film. When we started the series eight years ago, our brief was clear — this will be content seeking viewer discretion. We were young, raring to go. We had seen the Tarantinos and Scorseses of the world, their kind of brutal storytelling. We thought, here’s our chance to explore something different. Also, most of the main characters were young, with their stories set in inhospitable climes, a struggle for survival…”

And that’s exactly the feeling when you hear the music at the very start. Singh adds, “When he read the material, John (Stewart Eduri) was very sure he wanted to give it a dissonant sound, keep melody out of it as much as possible. It’s almost like you are in a gun factory, with the clang of metals. He was able to crack that palpable sense of looming danger.” Eduri is the music composer of Mirzapur.

Speaking of looming danger, in Mirzapur it would be pronounced bhailence. Indeed, pawer, phemly, riks, sarbhibal, phayer, phainal are now very much part of fan parlance.

And then comes the revelation. Singh says, “I can talk about Game of Thrones like a fan, and Paatal Lok that I enjoyed thoroughly. And just like many viewers, I often shut my eyes or look away when those gory scenes appear. That is an emotional reaction; I am squeamish about blood. Unless it’s something I am working on…”

Chalo, yeh bhi theek hai.

How did Singh arrive at the idiom? He says, “Most of the credit for this goes to writer Puneet Krishna, and his brother Vineet. They grew up in Uttar Pradesh, in Purvan-
chal. They have been in all those places like Jaunpur, Benaras, Mirzapur and so on. This language was second nature. Also, most of our actors belong to the region with a few exceptions, of course.”

There are other writers too who contribute for a few episodes, just like there is another director along with Singh in every season. “We have a large think-tank,” he says, “there are also the producers at Excel Entertainment as well as executives at Prime Video. Mirzapur thrives because we have a secure home, and platform.”

True, not many Indian web series have done well every season. Especially one such as this, with such a wide playing field and so many potent threads. “Drawing up the character arcs of so many players is itself a Herculean task,” says Singh.

A plethora of characters and so few in the “clear”. Most of them are dark, various shades of grey to be accurate, with the percentage of black sometimes changing. Does the director have any favourites? Well, Singh doesn’t answer that, instead he says, “We had no idea of the amount of love Bablu would receive. After Season 1, we got a lot of audience hate because Bablu and Sweety were killed.”

That is why in Season 2, there was much deliberation, he continues. “Who should be eliminated — Munna or Kaleen Bhaiya? The theme of that season was revenge and thus it had to be a creative call — Munna had to die at the hands of Guddu and Golu. But then again, Munna had become a huge favourite and even today we get fan mail saying, ‘We want Munna back.’”

What about Beena? In the season that just ended, after the credit roll, we see Maqbool being sought out by Beena. That is a clear hint that she is going to be very much in the centre of things in Season 4. Singh simply smiles and says, “Great. That is what we want you to think right now.”

He continues: “We have been working on this element of post-credit throughout. In Season 1, it was Sharad Shukla shaving his head. In Season 2, after the protracted funeral scene and bloodshed come the credits. Only after that, we get a glimpse of Guddu on the throne. In Season 3, there is this very long sequence wherein Kaleen Bhaiya kills all the bahubalis, places the dead Sharad on the throne. It is all very overwhelming. We allow our viewers time to sink it all in, aided by the credits rolling. And then we leave the hooks — Kaleen Bhaiya’s resurgence, the revelation that Guddu has escaped from jail, him and Golu coming together, the inevitable closeness building up over the seasons… all of these serve to heighten the emotions. But the very last throw is for the diehard Mirzapur fan who is still going to sit and watch... and get a glimpse of the very memorable and lovable character Maqbool.”

In other words, the anticipation of phul setisphaction.