Strong on grit, short on emotive resonance

Johnson Thomas

Abhishek Chaubey and Sudip Sharma’s reinvented version of the real life events that granted legendary infamy to dacoits like Man Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), Lakhna (Sushant Singh Rajput), Vakil (Ranvir Shorey), and Phoolan (for a brief bit in this film)–is like a palliative effort at minimising cruelty in the name of remorse, morals, superstition and piety.

Chaubey and Sharma would have us believe that these dreaded bandits were governed by a strange set of ethics – a code that once crossed, lead them to self-destruction even though tenacious attempts were made for restitution and redemption. And that’s a theory born out of a wild imagination at best.

Chaubey and Sharma people this unrelenting drama with hyphenated symbols of oppression. A woman, Indumati Tomar (Bhumi Pednekar) and the brutally raped child victim she rescues, seeks refuge in the ravines of Bundelkhand, Chambal valley that is governed by fearsome dacoits.

The attempt here is to show that there are varying degrees of evil. Indumati Tomar, a victim of toxic patriarchy and her attempt to save the Dalit girl from eventual death, is a story thread meant to infiltrate the viciousness of a band of brigands and showcase them as men of compassion and remorse. 

When Indumati Tomar’s track intersects with that of Phuliya (aka Phoolan), there’s a sort of kindred bonding that expresses itself in Phuliya offering Indumati a chance to take up the gun as a fellow gang member. Indumati shrugs off the offer—thus exposing the writers’ attempts to contrive a sort of hope where there is really no silver lining. Mind you, we’ve already been told that she can’t go back to her wimpy husband and blood-thirsty son.

The young gang-rape victim is also kept alive (when the doctor has already declared that chances of her surviving are next to impossible given the topography of the region and the distance and hurdles in reaching a major hospital in time) in a rather unbelievable attempt to dispel the inherent darkness in the violence driven, masochism on display.

The audience is also made privy to a recurring nightmare (visuals of a bloodied screaming young girl child) that haunts the outlaws as they make their way towards a destiny that has already been decided on the script page. 

To even out the odds there is a Gujjar cop (Ashutosh Rana) marshalling his forces to gain revenge and do his duty all in a few days work.

This is not a true story but it’s a re-imagined account of real events that defined the polity of middle India during that decade of oppression underlined by the declaration of Emergency. Chaubey’s direction is largely a revisit to mentor Bharadwaj’s Kaminey, in terms of structure and mechanics. Mame Khan’s Baghi Re as part of the background vocals, has a plaintive echo that reiterates Karmic consequence while Vishal, Navin Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor fashion a score that makes the bleakness all the more telling. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s camera captures the acute depravity of the region wonderfully. Meghna Sen’s edits could have been a little more circumspect and the writers could have developed the plot beyond the perfunctory it largely appears to be. Ultimately it’s the actors who really make this experience full of grit and power. 

Manoj Bajpayee, Ashutosh Rana, Sushant Singh Rajput, Ranvir Shorey, Bhumi Pednekar and the rest of the supporting cast really live their roles here. But for their overpowering vigour, this revisionist exercise would have been rather non-mitigating!