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Star Cast: Bobby Deol, Sapna Pabbi, Sanya Malhotra, Saba Azad, Jitendra Joshi, Raj B Shetty
Director: Anurag Kashyap
What’s Good: The plotline, Bobby Deol, Anurag Kashyap’s storytelling, Abhishek Banerjee and Sudip Sharma’s screenplay – in short, everything!
What’s Bad: Nothing much, except for the helplessness and unsettling thoughts it triggers you with!
Loo Break: Only in the interval
Watch or Not?: Absolutely Yes!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 2 hours 20 Minutes
User Rating:
“Hum sab apne circus ke bandar hai. Jail is duniya ka sabse mehenga seven star hotel hai jahan har cheez ki keemat hai,” discuss two characters in Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar! A man caught and trapped in the system of law and justice that we loosely say is fairly biased towards men and inclined towards women! Aurat ne bola No Means No tells a police officer to Samar Mehra (Bobby Deol) when he pleads not guilty, while he is accused of rape by a woman he met on a dating app and was involved with physically!
When I walked into this film, I was already in two minds. Because I know what this film is. The promo announced it loud and clear – a MeToo case in reverse, a celebrity falsely charged under Section 376 for rape. And I know who directed it. Anurag Kashyap, who has his own set of experiences where he has observed people who have been through these accusations very closely! So Kashyap, making all of us uncomfortable, has made a film that argues – or at least strongly implies – Not All Men!
Bandar Movie Review: Script Analysis
I walked out of this film with a very logical and unsettling question – Do men really have access to scream Me Too? And to be honest, this question came to my mind only after the film ended. Throughout Bandar, I kept thinking – Is he telling the truth? He says maine nahi kiya, but his past tells otherwise. What if he did it, though? That question never left me. And to Kashyap’s credit – and my eternal frustration – the film never answers it. Such an unsettling and frustrating thought!
The story of Bandar is haunting – Samar Mehra (Bobby Deol), a once-famous celebrity, is struggling for relevance since his stardom is fading. He explores a dating app and starts dating a woman called Gayatri, who is obsessed with the star! She is a fan, and once they have a fallout, she decides to avenge! By accusing him of rape! Now here is where the film gets unsettling!
After Samar Mehra is accused of rape, what do you expect the course of the film to be? A courtroom drama? Well, to your surprise – No! Because the system makes sure that the man does not even reach that stage. Yes, that is how unjustified this system is! The man, the accused, never gets a chance to defend himself! Say why? Because a woman said no. And interestingly enough, we do not even know if the woman ever said No!
Bandar Movie Review: Star Performance
Bobby Deol delivers perhaps the strongest performance of his career. We see him transform with each passing scene, from a man who is confident enough to face the media to a man trying to recall and question himself in his dreams. A man who wants to fight and then begs to just do anything to let him out of jail, to a man who begs for money to survive jail at least! He brings the calm, the restlessness, and the madness before the final surrender to the circumstance!
Sapna Pabbi deserves mention for portraying a character who plays with your mind. Despite her showcasing all the negative signs, you still cannot fully dismiss her claims! That is where she wins! Sanya Malhotra, as the sister being sandwiched between people’s glaring eyes to support a rape accused and supporting her brother no matter what, is brilliant with her frustration and helplessness! You see a moment where she completely distrusts her brother, and it makes for such a powerful scene! Only Kashyap’s cinema has this power to show all the shades of a person’s beliefs and doubts in a single stretch! Jitendra Joshi, in a single scene, denying bail to a rape accused, is so powerful that he makes my blood boil. I do not even know why! But he does!
The inmates do an incredible job as accused on trial. All of them are accused of some or the other crime, trying to justify it at times, trying to clarify the truth at times, and mostly being unapologetic and undisturbed about it since it has been so long! Saba Azad deserves applause for a very impressive act.
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Bandar Movie Review: Direction, Music
Anurag Kashyap‘s direction is never interested in reaching a conclusion. The film is never about who is lying – the man or the woman! It is just about flipping the coin and knowing the emotional turmoil of the other gender that stands accused, in fact, that is convicted of the crime. No trial. Say why? Because if a woman says it, you have to believe it! That is the film. A man, trapped in a system that does not do justice to either party, and a woman we are never fully allowed to understand.
Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee’s screenplay spends its entire time focusing on what happens after someone is accused and charged with Section 376. What about his mental health if he had not done it? What about his family’s physical, mental, and financial health! Most importantly, what about the societal health of the family of the accused?
The one thing Bandar gets absolutely bang on is its villain! And it’s neither of the parties, nor the victim, nor the accused! It is the law that cannot justify or protect its men and women equally. A society that, despite fighting for equality, fails to treat men and women equally!
Did he do it or not? I do not know! I cannot know ever! Kashyap’s direction plays with your mind. It makes me feel ashamed as a woman for all those men who have been wrongly accused. And I want to tell them – Not All Women! But the very next moment, it makes me empathize all the women who have actually accused men of the same and are telling the truth! And here is where I have to speak as a woman who is not outside this conversation – I am inside it. I live inside the same web of law and justice that this film questions. I know what it means when a woman is not believed. I also know that false accusations exist, and that pretending they don’t is bizarre!
The background score is minimalist, and it plays with the silence! But the songs work very well. In fact, that little chunk of Come On Baby is still playing in my head!
Bandar Movie Review: The Last Word
So should I empathize with Samar? I did. Bobby Deol made sure of that. But that empathy made me uncomfortable in the way only a truly good film can. Because every time I felt bad for him, a small voice said: But how do you know? You were not there. You only have his side of the story. And that is also the only side the film gives you.
Bandar is a genuinely well-made film. Watch it. Feel it. Let Bobby Deol break your heart. And then go sit with the discomfort of not knowing whether you just spent more than 2 hours feeling sorry for the right person. That’s the most honest thing Bandar offers you. And it’s also the thing Kashyap, perhaps deliberately, refuses to resolve.
To be honest Usne kiya ya nahi kiya. I don’t know. The film doesn’t know either. And I’m not gutsy enough to pretend that I do. What if I am empathizing with the wrong person! Very unsettling!
PS. At one point, Bandar breaks my heart – When Bobby Deol writes a letter to the woman he probably loves – Saba Azad! He narrates his daily life in jail and discusses what it means to be an accused and what it costs for an innocent soul! He argues, probably, in their world, they did the right thing! But the very next moment, even he questions himself – Probably he drew Gayatri to the point that she had to do this! Probably, he unintentionally triggered and dragged her to the point that she chose this path! He even apologizes to his woman for something he might have done or not, but he says, sorry to her. Sorry if he ever made her feel unsettled or triggered at any point. And the conversation is disturbing to the core!
Does the law literally gaslight an innocent? Or does the accused gaslight the law? I really do not know at this point when even the accused asks me – Tujhe kya lagta hai, maine kiya ya nahi kiya! Uff, I can’t discuss this anymore!
4.5 stars
Bandar Trailer
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