Gunday — [repack]

By 1985, they were no longer coolies. They were Gunday . Bikram and Bala. The name was spat like a curse and whispered like a prayer. They controlled the coal, the illegal timber, and the desi liquor. Their rule was simple: “Mazdoor ko mazdoori milni chahiye, maalik ko apni jaan ki fikar karni chahiye.” (The worker gets his wage; the owner worries about his life.)

Bikram fell in love with a cabaret dancer named Nandini, a woman with eyes like cracked mirrors. Bala, who never wanted anything, wanted only his brother’s happiness. But the city’s new police commissioner, Ashwin Vardhan, was a different breed—honest, arrogant, and armed with a new anti-gangster law. gunday

Bala looked at the river. “I teach slum kids to box. You?” By 1985, they were no longer coolies