Gangsters and organised crime have always fascinated storytellers. While some of the biggest books and movies in the West have gangsters at their core — The Godfather, Scarface, Carlito’s Way, The Untouchables, The Gangs of New York etc. writers and filmmakers in India too have a strong underworld fixation.

From books like Black Friday, Dongri to Dubai and The Karachi Deception, to films like Black Friday, Company, Gangster, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai (and its sequel) and now Shootout at Wadala, Dawood and his rule over the underworld has inspired storytellers to write both fictional and non-fictional accounts about the man and the troubled times. So what fires the imagination of so many filmmakers, writers and their audience?
Before Dawood Ibrahim came on the scene, there were movies based on other dons like Varadarajan Mudaliar. But what sets Dawood apart is that he is more ruthless than the earlier dons and his empire extends beyond Indian shores.
Author Oswald Pereira, whose latest book The Newsroom Mafia is said to be based on Varadarajan, explains that the earlier dons had some pretensions of nationalism, but not so in the case of Dawood. The D-company rose to become as big as an international business because a government inimical to India supported it.
The other thing that makes the era of terror so interesting is the fact that the gangsters are not just gangsters but extensions of terror networks working to destabilise the country. “The USP of the concept of organised crime today and earlier too, is terror. But today organised crime has been expanded to ‘terrorism’ with international ramifications. The new definition of fear is thus spelled ‘terrorism’, which is a fascinating subject for books and films,” says Pereira.
“They are not just smugglers or extortionists trying to make a quick buck, they are people who are systematically carrying out a terror agenda. I think it is the Mumbai blasts of 1993 that really inspire writers and storytellers in India. The rise of the D-Company and the rise of terrorism go hand in hand. The fact is that one of India’s most wanted criminals is hiding in plain sight in Pakistan. So it’s not just the gangster that is fascinating. It’s the complicity of the gangster and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism that fuels the imagination,” elaborates author Shatrujeet Nath, whose recently out debut book The Karachi Deception, unravels the plot to assassinate Mumbai’s dreaded underworld don Irshad Dilawar, who’s hiding in Pakistan and assisting the ISI in its proxy war against India.
The audiences love to see good triumph over bad and gangster tales offer an unrepentant evil that the good guys have to take down, or the underdog who fights an unfair system and helps others. In either case, the gangster is the source of conflict and drama, ideal to draw attention. Also these works introduce us to the lives and world of people like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala and Dawood.
“They could have been heroes, but if you see movies like Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan, you will realise that these guys were heroes to the poor people, sort of Robin Hoods of the bastis. Their tales of sheer improvisation fascinates me. They learnt to bend and break law, they were foolhardy, but they thought on their feet. The world of drugs, guns and gold is not meant for everyone. That’s why we go back to these stories again and again,” says Manisha Lakhe, scriptwriter, film reviewer and author of The Betelnut Killers.
Author Mukul Deva, known for his works including RIP, Laskhar, Salim Must Die, Blowback and Tanzeem, takes it further and says, “All thrillers need a good guy (to save the world), a bad guy (to destroy it) and of course a lady (to provide the human interest angle). During the cold war years it was the bad Russian spy or leader. Accordingly, with the rise of terrorism gangsters are the obvious targets for thrillers.”
Publisher Ahmed Faiyaz, who doubles up as a filmmaker, adds that these stories are pretty relevant in modern times as there is a strong connect and they end up being more intriguing as compared to heady escapist cinema of the 90s and campus love stories which made up for most Indian fiction releases over the past few years. “These books/films arouse a lot of interest and become talking points as the society today accepts and understands conflicted and flawed characters more than they did over the past few decades,” sums up Faiyaz.