Frames per second: Water and fire

Maqbool and the altered contours of power in Gujarat

Vishal Bharadwaj’s incomparable adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (2006) begins on a typically rainy night in Mumbai when one gang, led by Jahangir Khan alias Abbaji, is wiping out a rival one. But before the shootout and the gang wars, we find the two police officer-witches (Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri) drawing up a horoscope of Mumbai on the fogged up window of their van. When Shah shoots an informer in their custody, the horoscope is besmeared with blood. A little later Inspector Pandit and Inspector Purohit tell the new ACP, investigating the gang wars, “Shakti ka santulan zaroori hai sansar