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Bangalore's underworld scenario is very well depicted in blockbuster Kannada movie ''[[Om (Kannada film)|Om]]''. The movie is considered controversial because of its violence and the portrayal of a lot of Bangalore underworld's incidents. Many real underworld people acted in the movie, of which some convicts had to be bailed out just to act in this movie. Some of the infamous rowdies who acted in the film are Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Bekkina Kannu (Cat Eye) Raajendra, Korangu, and Tanveer.
Bangalore's underworld scenario is very well depicted in blockbuster Kannada movie ''[[Om (Kannada film)|Om]]''. The movie is considered controversial because of its violence and the portrayal of a lot of Bangalore underworld's incidents. Many real underworld people acted in the movie, of which some convicts had to be bailed out just to act in this movie. Some of the infamous rowdies who acted in the film are Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Bekkina Kannu (Cat Eye) Raajendra, Korangu, and Tanveer.

MANGALORE: Notorious criminal Pandu alias Panduranga Pai was recently hacked to death in an isolated area near the Kankanady railway station, thereby putting a bloody end to the bloody chapter of a dreaded criminal who was wanted by the police in several cases.
Here is a brief insight into the life of this criminal who aspired to be a don of the coastal districts.
Decades ago, a teenager was making a living doing line sale of soft drinks, along with several other youth of Matadakani area in the city. The teenager was none other than the now killed Pandu. But unfortunately he fell into the trap of rowdyism never to look back and never to return.
After the killing of Gunakar Shetty in the year 1991, the Ballalbagh Raghu team had been ripped apart. On the other hand, the Barke gang led by Barke Yaddu was behind bars. They were facing several charges including the case of chopping off the hands of Akashbhavan Suresh and Kadri Santhu. Taking advantage of the absence of gang leaders there merged a small leader named Chimini Santhu who was a frail looking man.
While the Barke and Ballalbagh gangs were in the sideline, Chimini Santhu was quite active and some youth too had joined his gang. Among them was Pandu who slowly learnt all aspects of rowdyism. Though he did not lay his hands into more heinous crimes he was brilliant enough in organizing rowdyism.
An incident that took place when the Mumbai mafia don Sadhu Shetty was in the prisoner’s cell at Wenlock, changed the course of the life of this Matadakani boy. Sadhu Shetty’s son-in-law was then attacked by Mulki Naveen gang. It was an attack owing to some personal rivalry while in reality Mulki Naveen had nothing to do with the incident. But Sadhu Shetty took the services of Pandu to eliminate Mulki Naveen.
Even Deju Shetty who was running a club at Chelairu was among the several who were a witness to the attack on Ranjan Shetty at the Mulki bus stand. The youth of Matadakani, who finished Deju Shetty for the reason that they could not lay their hands on Mulki Naveen, brought smiles on the face of Sadhu Shetty.
Sadhu Shetty was stunned by the way in which the Matadakani boys launched the attack and came to the conclusion that an organized team here too can control the underworld like in Mumbai.
He thus nurtured this gang which also included Pandu. When Matadakani Santhu got killed at the hands of Barke Vinay at the City Kitchen at Mannagudda, Pandu took upon the leadership of the Mannagudda boys.
The first case registered against Pandu was when he attacked an autorickshaw driver at Kadri police station limits in the year 1989. Thus began his criminal activities which included the attack on Udaya of Barke Yaddu gang, attack on Rakesh Malli’s brother, attack on Ashok Shetty in Karkala and the murder attempt of Udaya Shetty, owner of the Tourist Hotel of Udupi.
Pandu later on shifted his base to Mumbai owing to his links with Sadhu Shetty and was involved in the murder of a Chota Shakeel aide, and that of Anwarlal, a relative of the Mumbai blast accused Davood. He was even charged with hatching the murder plot of Mohammad Soofi in Gujarat. After Sadhu Shetty was killed in an encounter, he had identified himself with the Ravi Poojari gang. As per police records nearly 26 cases were pending against Pandu in different stations.
Pandu had even undergone two years of imprisonment in Mumbai under the Arms Act. He returned to Mangalore in 2006 and was preparing a sketch to finish Barke Yaddu when he was trapped and put behind bars.
Pandu who had a deep desire to rule the underworld in Mangalore, came into contact with Vamanjoor Rohi in the prison. Pandu who learnt from within bars the manner in which Chethu of Bolar, Barke Yaddu and others were making money, hatched a plan to finish Rohi, by colluding with Chetu. It was Pandu who was the brain behind the plan to first help Rohi who was shifted to the Mysore jail to escape and then finish him off. In this act he was helped by Vinod Shettigar, Shaktivelu, Chilly Naveen and some others. But the plan turned a flop. Later on, the pair joined hands with Mulki Rafique and hatched yet another conspiracy to finish off Yaddu through Dadapal Rahiman of Kalladka. Yet again their plan flopped as Sukhananda Shetty murder took place almost the same time. Pandu after he was released was most of the time at large. He was still wanted by the police in connection with the supari killings planned by Vinod Shettigar. He was traced by the police in the Madikeri estate of the father of a student of SDM College. It was then that he revealed to the police of his plans to finish off Bushra Azeez, Purusha of Udupi, Barke Yaddu and Srikar of Kaup.
In fact, an attempt had been made on the life of Pandu near a bar at Tokkottu some time back. Though the attempt was foiled Pandu was later on handed over to the Gujarat police in connection with the case of threatening a businessman there for hafta.
His parents, Taranath Pai and Kasturi had since long feared that there was a chance of their son getting killed in an encounter and his father had even made an appeal to the SP to protect his son. Pandu had landed in Mangalore after he was released on bail from Gujarat jail and was finally killed in Mangalore by the Bejai Raja gang.


== Indian mafia in popular culture ==
== Indian mafia in popular culture ==

Revision as of 06:56, 19 December 2012

The term Indian mafia refers to certain[which?] criminal organizations found in some[which?] of India's major cities. The "Indian Mafia" also refer to powerful families that have criminal aspects to it.[not verified in body]

Mumbai underworld

The first of mafia elements, or syndicates, perhaps had their origins in the gambling and bootleg liquor dens set up by a pathan Ayub Khan Pathan alias Ayub Lala. He was the founder president of Pakhtun Jirga e Hind, an association of around 13,000 Afghani nationals settled in Bombay. Although Ayub Lala was labelled a mafia don, he had not even slapped a single person during his lifetime, to show off his muscle power. He controlled the gambling clubs mostly owned by Marwaris, Muslim and Gujrati operators and drug cartel including spurious liquor dens in Mumbai. Ayub Lala also owned a few KawaKhanas (a drink made from opium served with black tea) and Chandolkhanas (somewhat like hokkah parlours). He left Bombay after the murder of his own step son Kashmiri Lala handing over the reigns of all his activities to Karim lala who was earlier a vendor selling liquor at a den at Dongri in south Mumbai.[1] in the 1940s.

Varadarajan Mudaliar, who rose to be a mafia don in Bombay was most active in the 1970s with Karim Lala and Haji Mastan. He enjoyed celebrity status and there are accounts that he even helped the needy and organized religious festivals. He is also considered to be India's first celebrity criminal. The Tamil film Nayagan which is a biopic of him directed by Mani Ratnam even made it to the Time Magazine's "All-Time 100 Best Films". The film was remade in Hindi called Dayavan which was directed by Feroze Khan with Vinod Khanna in leading role as the don Varadarajan Mudaliar. Meanwhile Haji Mastan is understood to be the inspiration behind the movie Deewar which was directed by Yash Chopra with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role as the don.varadharajan mudhaliar(varadha bhai)was one of feared gangster of 70s and 80s.he was thrown out of power by inspector pawar.

There was also a don named Rama Naik who hailed from Byculla a close associate of Bada Rajan and mentor of Arun Gavli.[2] He reigned from 70 to 1987 when he was encountered on the behest of Dawood. Currently the biggest such underworld leader is Dawood Ibrahim. During his rise, Dawood Ibrahim was initially challenged by Karim Lala who eventually surrendered due to Dawood's swift and shrewd moves that resulted in also eliminating members of Karim Lala's family and his mob. Dawood was also challenged by the powerful Dholakia brothers (Mahesh and Arvind Dholakia) who masterminded the murder of Dawood's key ally Babu Reshim in a daring raid inside a Mumbai police station where Babu Reshim was detained. Following this, Dawood had both Dholakia brothers assassinated (in separate incidents) and consequently became the supreme and unchallenged underworld king of Mumbai. Varadarajan Mudaliar and Haji Mastan quit all illegal activities by that time and maintained a low key presence.

In the illegal opium trade, the earliest dated mafia family was the Thane-based (Mumbai) Thanevale gang that was responsible for over 80% of the opium and heroin trafficking in the 1860s according to an article by Harkisondas Thanawala (1965).

Coming into the 20th century another major crime family originating from Bulandshar erupted onto the scene. Their rackets included illegal garbage contracts and real estate transactions through bribery and extortion. The Bargoti Family has notoriously used violence and illegal influence to become a dominating force in the Indian Underworld. The current Don is known as a real estate mogul and resides in the U.S (PA) underneath an unknown alias and frequents India for business. Other defining rackets for the family include prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging.

Activities

India is a major transit point for heroin coming in from the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent to Europe. India is also the world's largest legal grower of opium, and experts estimate that 5–10% of the legal opium is converted into illegal heroin and 8–10% is consumed in high quantities as concentrated liquid. The pharmaceutical industry is also responsible for a lot of illegal production of mandrax, much of which is smuggled into South Africa. Diamond smuggling via South Africa is also a major criminal activity, and diamonds are also sometimes used to disguise shipments of heroin. Finally, a lot of money laundering takes place in the country, mostly through the use of the traditional hawala system, although India has criminalised money laundering as of 2003.[3]

Bangalore underworld

Bangalore’s underworld dates back to the late 1960s, when Kodigehalli Mune Gowda became the first underworld don.In the beginning he controlled all of Bangalore, and his basic revenue source was hafta(protection money) from brothels and arrack shops. In the 1970s, Kotwal Ramachandra and Jayaraj entered the field. Wine shops, massage parlours, game parlours were added to the list. They had political affiliations.The scene changed in the 1980s and 1990s, when young Turks entered the field like Muthappa Rai, Agni Shridhar in 1990 to 1995 Boot House Kumar or Oil Kumar, Bekkina Kannu Rajendra, Srirampura Kitty, Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Pushpa, Kala Pathar, Malla family, and Ele Naga emerged.

At the same time, the underworld became active, Abu Shair, Koli Fayaz, Tanvir, Ishtiyak, Sajjad, Nazir, hibbath, Tarakari Khaleel and Chappal Hamid. Bangalore was virtually a battleground, as these operators stretched their businesses to all possible revenue earning sectors.[4]

Bangalore's underworld scenario is very well depicted in blockbuster Kannada movie Om. The movie is considered controversial because of its violence and the portrayal of a lot of Bangalore underworld's incidents. Many real underworld people acted in the movie, of which some convicts had to be bailed out just to act in this movie. Some of the infamous rowdies who acted in the film are Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Bekkina Kannu (Cat Eye) Raajendra, Korangu, and Tanveer.

Crime films revolving around the Indian mafia, particularly the Mumbai underworld, have been common in Indian cinema since the 1950s, evolving into a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir in the late 1990s.[5] The genre has its origins in the 1950s, with the Raj Kapoor films Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955) being some of the earliest films involving the Mumbai underworld. In the 1960s, Shakti Samanta's China Town (1962), starring Shammi Kapoor and Helen, dealt with the criminal underworld that existed in Chinatown, Kolkata, at the time. It was the earliest film to introduce the plot element of a look-alike working as an undercover agent impersonating a gangster, an idea that was used again Don (1978) and many later films inspired by it.[6]

In the 1970s and early 1980s, many of the most well-known classic Bollywood movies were based around themes of fighting criminals and corruption at a time when crime was rising and authorities were powerless. Classic Amitabh Bachchan films depicted the underworld and the protagonists attempting to overcome it, including Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer (1972), Yash Chopra's Deewar (1975), Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Chandra Barot's Don (1978) and Vijay Anand's Ram Balram (1980). In particular, Deewar, which Danny Boyle described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema”, was a crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Bachchan.[7] Most Bollywood crime movies at the time were fairly unrealistic with the masala style of action and plots. In Parallel Cinema on the other hand, the Calcutta trilogies of Bengali film directors Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray, particularly the 1976 film Jana Aranya (The Middleman), dealt with the Calcutta underworld in a more realistic manner.

In the late 1980s, Parallel Cinema filmmakers began producing more realistic Bombay underworld films, with an early example being Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Nayagan (1987), based on the life of the Bombay don, Varadarajan Mudaliar, portrayed by Kamal Haasan. Nayagan was included in Time Magazine's "All-Time 100 Best Films" list, issued in 2005.[8] I The Bombay underworld was also depicted in Mira Nair's Academy Award nominated Hindi film Salaam Bombay! (1988). The underworld was also depicted in several other National Film Award winning films, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda (1989) starring Anil Kapoor, Mukul S. Anand's Agneepath (1990) starring Bachchan, and Sudhir Mishra's Dharavi (1991) starring Anil Kapoor and Om Puri.

File:Satya.jpg
Movie poster for Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998), considered the beginning of the Mumbai noir genre.

In the late 1990s, Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998) marked the introduction of a new genre of film making, Mumbai noir, of which he is the acknowledged master.[5] The critical and commercial success of Satya led to an increased emphasis on realism in later Mumbai underworld films. Varma's next Mumbai noir film was Company (2002), based on the D-Company, a real-life criminal organization. Satya and Company both gave "slick, often mesmerizing portrayals of the Mumbai underworld", and displayed realistic "brutality and urban violence."[7] Satya won six Filmfare Awards, including the Critics Award for Best Film, while Company won seven Filmfare Awards. A prequel to Company was released in 2005, entitled D (2005), produced by Varma and directed by Vishram Sawant. Varma's three films Satya, Company and D are together considered an "Indian Gangster Trilogy".[9] Varma also directed an Indian adaptation of The Godfather novel in a Mumbai underworld setting, called Sarkar (2005), and has more recently filmed an original sequel called Sarkar Raj (2008). Another film Sarfarosh, starring Aamir Khan deals with cross-border arms smuggling, and the criminal elements within India that are involved with it, including the Mumbai mafia.

Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaastav: The Reality (1999) is another film that depicts the Indian mafia. Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2004) is based on S. Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings, which involved the underworld organization, the D-Company.[7] Vishal Bharadwaj's Maqbool (2004) and Omkara (2006) are modern-day Indian mafia interpretations of the William Shakespeare plays Macbeth and Othello, respectively. Farhan Akhtar's Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006) is a remake of Barot's original 1978 Don with Shahrukh Khan taking Bachchan's place in the title role. Apoorva Lakhia's Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007) is based on a real-life 1991 incident involving Commissioner Aftab Ahmed Khan and the Lokhandwala Complex. Waaris (2008) is an Indian television series on Zee TV with the Indian mafia as its background. The Mumbai underworld has also been depicted in Madhur Bhandarkar's Traffic Signal (2007) and Rajeev Khandelwal's Aamir (2008).

Danny Boyle's Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), based on Vikas Swarup's Boeke Prize winning novel Q & A (2005), has also portrayed the Indian mafia, under the influence of earlier Mumbai noir films.[10] Boyle has cited previous Bollywood portrayals of the Mumbai underworld in Deewar, Satya, Company and Black Friday as direct influences on the film.[7][11] Indian mafia was widely portrayed in 2009 Bollywood's 2009 critically acclaimed film Kaminey.

Gregory David Roberts's Shantaram novel, also features the Indian mafia in its storyline.

Bollywood connections

The Indian mafia is notoriously heavily involved in Mumbai's Bollywood film industry, providing films with funding and using them as fronts for other activities. It is rumoured that Dawood Ibrahim controls the film industry, and actors of other religious faiths are threatened to give way for his supporters. Although in recent times police investigations have forced mobsters to make their activities more subtle, for most of Bollywood's existence stars openly displayed their mafia connections, attending parties with mafia dons and using their help to gain new roles.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Karim Lala is dead". The Hindu, February 20, 2002.
  2. ^ Ghosh, Srikanta (1991). The Indian Mafia. South Asia Books. pp. 49–50. ISBN 81-7024-378-5.
  3. ^ Nations Hospitable to Organized Crime and Terrorism - Library of Congress report
  4. ^ Madhav, Vinay (2009-07-28). "Underworld lurks under dim city lights". The Times Of India.
  5. ^ a b Aruti Nayar (2007-12-16). "Bollywood on the table". The Tribune. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  6. ^ CineGoer.com - Nostalgia - Bhale Thammudu
  7. ^ a b c d Amitava Kumar (23 December 2008). "Slumdog Millionaire's Bollywood Ancestors". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2008-01-04. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Time Magazine All time best 100 movies". Time Magazine. 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
  9. ^ "Final film in Indian Gangster Trilogy a Must See". Cinema Strikes Back. 2005-08-24. Retrieved 2011-07-07.
  10. ^ Christian Jungen (April 4, 2009). "Urban Movies: The Diversity of Indian Cinema". FIPRESCI. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
  11. ^ "All you need to know about Slumdog Millionaire". London: The Independent. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-21. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ BBC News - Analysis - Bollywood and the mafia the most dangerous game in India http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3152662.stm
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