Now that a complaint has been filed against the popular web series, Mirzapur, on the grounds that it defames the image of Uttar Pradesh, i...
Now that a complaint has been filed against the popular web series, Mirzapur, on the grounds that it defames the image of Uttar Pradesh, it’s worth asking if that is indeed so. Actually, excluding the personal and romantic stories of the characters, reality is often worse than what is shown in the series.
We don’t have to look beyond the jaw-dropping action and murder last year of the small-time don Vikas Dubey of Kanpur rural district, who had thrived just a few hours drive from the state capital, Lucknow. During an attempted arrest last year, his men killed eight policeman, following which Dubey was located in Madhya Pradesh and handed over to the Uttar Pradesh police, who then shot him in an alleged encounter on July 10.
Real life had become more dramatic than reel life. It was alleged that Vikas Dubey was killed because he knew too much about the politicians and policemen in his pay.
The Purvanchal region or eastern Uttar Pradesh where the series Mirzapur is set, is full of dons. Since the 1990s, the use of kattas or country-made guns, as shown in the series, became endemic – although AK 47s and pistols were also used.
But the town of Mirzapur itself has...
