Monkey In A Cage

Bandar Movie Review Rating:

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.