Mirzapur season 2 is officially around the corner, releasing on October 23rd. Now there's a sentence I've been waiting to say for a while. The first season of the Amazon Prime Video's smash hit gangster saga came out at the end of 2018. As we gear up to get our gangsters, gaalis, guns and Pankaj Tripathi on, here's a refresher on what went down in season one.
The story follows the rule of Akhananad Tripathi (Pankaj Tripathi), also known as Kaleen Bhaiya, the mafia don and proverbial ruler of Mirzapur.
Munna (Divyendu Sharma) is his hot-headed, violently unhinged 'tumse nahin ho payega' disappointment of a son.
Rounding off the Tripathi household is Kaleen Bhaiya's young wife (and Munna's stepmother) Beena (Rasika Duggal), and his wheelchair bound father Satyanand Tripathi.
In the first episode when Munna shoots a man at a wedding (something that we assume happens a fair bit), the case falls to Ramakant Pandit (Rajesh Tailang), one of the only righteous lawyers in the city.
Our heroes are his sons Guddu (Ali Fazal) and Bablu (Vikrant Massey), a brains and brawn duo of brothers who fight off Munna and his goons to save their family. When Kaleen Bhaiya confronts the brothers, he sees a fire within them and offers them a job instead, leaving a sorely disgruntled Munna. The brothers agree. You don't turn down Kaleen Bhaiya.
To add fuel to the fire, both Guddu and Munna are also besotted by the same girl, Sweety (Shriya Pilgaonkar). Though Bablu is drawn to Sweety's more academically inclined sister Golu (Shweta Tripathi).
An increasingly power-hungry Guddu, and a more reticent Bablu, quickly rise up the ranks of Kaleen Bhaiya's arms dealing empire. As Munna's anger and frustration towards his father grows, he hatches a plan with his best friend Compounder (Abhishek Banerjee) to kill Kaleen Bhaiya. The plan goes awry and Compounder is caught. In one of the most heart-breaking scenes of the season, to prove that Compounder was acting alone, Munna is made to kill Compounder, who, till his last breath, doesn't give up Munna out of loyalty and love for his friend.
Even at home, Kaleen Bhaiya struggles to keep things together. As a result of his inability to perform sexually, Beena starts having an affair with their house help Raja. Guddu and Bablu also gradually get closer to Sweety and Golu eventually leading to Guddu and Sweety's engagement and eventual marriage.
Elsewhere, just before the explosive finale, Guddu and Bablu are summoned by Kaleen Bhaiya's biggest mafia rival Rati Shankar Shukla of Jaunpur, who Guddu kills after he tries to get the brothers to join him. This angers Kaleen Bhaiya, who realises his prize stallions have become lose cannons. Ahead of the explosive season finale, Kaleen Bhaiya finally unleashes Munna on the brothers, giving his blessing to end them.
Mirzapur's season 1 finale took things to dark and brutally unforgiving places, proving it was a series that isn't afraid to bump off major players.
Kaleen Bhaiya hits back at Inspector Ram Sharan Maurya (Amit Sial), who'd been sent to clean up Mirzapur, by rounding up his entire team of officers in the dead of night and shooting them point blank. The inspector watches in horror and learns his place in the order of things.
In the Tripathi household, the wheelchair bound Satyanand Tripathi confronts Beena about her affair, which he's known about all along. In the single, most uncomfortable sequence of the series, to punish her, he has her murder her lover (their house help Ram) and then rapes her, declaring that if she can't be impregnated by his son, he'll step in to ensure the future of their household.
And finally, as India's very own red wedding, while Guddu, Munna, Sweety and Golu are at a friend's wedding, Munna barges in with his goons and shoots everyone in sight. With the brothers disarmed and brought to their knees, Munna finally gets his moment of revenge. He first murders Sweety, despite being told she's pregnant with Guddu's child. He then proceeds to blow Bablu's head off in front of Guddu. Before he can finish the job and end Guddu and Golu too, armed security storms in, and they survive.
Based on how things ended, and the trailer for season 2, we have some sense of where the action is headed.
As expected the focal point of the new season looks to be Guddu's relentless quest for revenge after losing his brother, wife and unborn child. Season 2 will also see the rise of Golu, who's similarly out for revenge, finally giving Mirzapur a badass female gangster. We can't wait to find out how the two hit back with a vengeance.
There's also two new players in the game, Sharad, who was introduced in the finale, who's out to avenge his father Rati Shankar Shukla and has his own plans to takeover Mirzapur. There's also a new unnamed character played by Vijay Varma whose origins and allegiances are as yet unknown. But, as with all things Mirzapur, we certainly can't wait to find out.