FILM

Encounter Killings: State Power And Organized Crime In Apoorva Lakhia’s Shootout At Lokhandwala (2007)

Photo by ev on Unsplash

The Hollywood genre of gangster films has used topical events such as the Depression and barely disguised portrayals of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone to reflect on contemporaneous concerns about social ills and urbanization (Wilson 3). By rendering a verisimilitude of actual locations, individuals and events, Hollywood gangster films offered “the viewer an opportunity to vicariously observe the urban criminal experience” (17).

Reflecting changing public perceptions of gangsters, the depiction of mobster characters in Hollywood films has ranged from the sympathetic gangster who is a “likeable, cocky, impetuous, quick-tempered, city tough” (19) to the demythologized and inept gangster who is “an alienated individual [operating] in an increasingly complex, globalized environment” (108).

The prevalence of hyper-violence and conspicuous consumption in Hollywood gangster movies have attracted and excited international audiences. As a result, numerous Hollywood gangster movies like The Godfather (1972) and Scarface (1932) have been adapted by film makers in other countries.

For example, the Indian film industry has produced films about mobsters and organized crime since the 1970s by…