Bheed, a film on mass migrant movement through the pandemic, starkly presents our country’s caste, class, economic and religious divide

Mona

A motherless girl sick of washing utensils in the city is paddling her way home with her drunkard father; a night watchman has his entire clan pushed inside a chartered bus; a separated mother desperately tryies to reach her daughter in the hostel before her husband does...Are just three stories that form a part of Anubhav Sinha’s Bheed.

The ace director, who has issue-based films Mulk, Article 15 and Thappad, to his credit, revisits mass migrant movement three years after the first pandemic lockdown. The film follows a cop, Surya Kumar Singh Tikas (Rajkummar Rao), who is made in-charge of the check-post set outside Tejpur to stop migrants from entering their state. A victim of casteism, despite his uniform and an upper class girlfriend, he is yet to come to terms that he is the authority in such unprecedented times of crisis. Surya comes face-to-face with the desperate bheed that gathers on the check-post. If law and order is one aspect, arrangements for healthcare, food and water also need be done, but everyone is as clueless as him.

Anubhav Sinha presents a microcosm of our colourful country in black and white. It highlights the caste, class, economic and religious divide. ‘Check post se peeche tak bahut saare Singh hain, aur bahut Shukla, Trivedi hai, aur sabka kanoon same hai, says Surya. Powerful performances are the strength of this narrative, which is just under two hours. Bheed is full of characters, each representing their reality. Pankaj Kapur, as watchman Trivedi, in his earnest effort to take his entire clan home safely, is ready to use saam, daam, dand, bhed. His inventiveness to get through the circumstances, pain at not being about to provide small children food and the bewilderment at the treatment he receives from police at the end, Bheed is yet another example of his stellar craft.

Rajkummar Rao’s acting prowess is pretty established; he does a befitting job as the vulnerable hero amidst a crisis. Bhumi Pednekar, as a frontline doctor, dealing with chaos does a fair job. She stands by her man, supporting him through the change and portrays a strong character. Kritika Kamra as an earnest journalist, Dia Mirza as a distressed mother in a hurry to reach her daughter, Ashutosh Rana as an officer caught in caste politics to Aditya Srivastava, as a corrupt cop, Ram Singh, lend able support.

Doing the film in black and white was a bold decision and it pays; it displays the pain of the mass movement effectively. Sound design by Mangesh Dhakde is brilliant and cinematography by Soumik Mukherjee fair. It’s the crisp dialogues that win you over. Anurag Saikia’s song Herail Ba carries the sentiment powerfully. The film that opens with a migrant labour family being crushed on train tracks isn’t all dark though.

What doesn’t work, however, is the fact that multiple strands have not been closed. While one is glad that the young girl has found direction to take her father home, and one is hopeful that she does, what happens to others is left open. Also, the film lacks cohesiveness; one cannot tell if just like the trailer some parts were removed from the film, which give it a certain incompleteness. The films asks real questions, but struggles to move you deeply despite a grave subject and powerful performances.