Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Bandar is not an easy film to sit through. I watched the uncut version, and it made me uncomfortable for all the right reasons. Going against the grain comes naturally to Kashyap, who has built a career on non-conformism.
This time, in ‘Bandar’, he turns the MeToo movement on its head, and then watches us squirm, as his on-the-skids Bollywood protagonist Samar Mehra’s life goes downhill, all the way to the bottom of the pit.
After Samar finds himself jailed for rape, there is no hope of redemption: ‘Bandar’ offers no false illusion of escape. There is only survival. And the first rule of survival in prison is to pretend you are in for ‘302’ instead of ‘376’.
Those who are in for murder stand a better chance of survival than those who are incarcerated for rape. Rapists are considered the worst specimen among the criminals in jail. Samar soon realises the impossibility of fighting the system. His descent into despair and acceptance is so vividly encrypted by Bobby Deol, I found myself flinching away in horror.
Didn’t I tell you? ‘Bandar’ is also the ultimate horror movie. The horror of knowing you are in a nightmare from which there is no waking up. Samar never sleeps. He never defecates either. The other inmates crowd and heckle him when he is at the overflowing toilet.
Wait! Are you already repulsed by the sheer inhumanity of it? Don’t be. There is plenty more to come. Unlike Samar, you can walk away from the immensely distressing situation. But you won’t. You want to know the end. Is there an end to Samar’s nightmare? Will his accuser Gayatri have a change of heart?
I have a problem with Sapna Pabbi’s stalker-accuser character. Not her fault. Her role is written (by Sudip Sharma, Abhishek Banerjee) as a portrait of evil: she is psychotic, paranoid, vengeful, desperate, evil… In brief, all grief for Samar. Pabbi doesn’t even try to humanise her character.
In her defence, women of her ilk do exist. But we live in a world where male toxicity is acknowledged and condemned. Female toxicity isn’t. For daring to take the other route, with no holds barred, Anurag Kashyap needs to be given a lot of credit.
What really works for ‘Bandar’ is Bobby Deol. There is an unsettling nakedness about the performance. His eyes, body language emanate pain and humiliation. In the most graphic and gnawing encounter, Samar is interrogated by a sadistic cop, Deore (Jitendra Joshi, brilliant), at the police station. The cop strips Samar of all dignity with his filthy accusations.
Bobby Deol takes it all in. He allows his character Samar’s dehumanisation to take over. There is no Deol here. As in all Anurag Kashyap films, there are some brilliant performances — or rather the opposite of brilliant as these actors don’t really seek to be noticed… Jitendra Joshi as the lewd cop, Nagesh Bhosle as an empathetic Havildar, Sukant Goel and Indrajith Sukumaran as jail inmates, Ridhi Sen as Samar’s inexperienced lawyer, Uday Tikekar as a judge lecturing us on the evils of the film industry.
Saiyed Shaaz Rizvi’s cinematography is not the least interested in letting us know how exceptional it is. Aarti Bajaj’s editing whittles the drama down to the bare minimum so that the tension commands all your attention.
‘Bandar’ is the sort of experience that leaves you exhausted and bitter about the legal system. It is also a trenchant cautionary tale with guts. But why the prison song, for God’s sake? That’s the only time Anurag Kashyap’s narrative steps out of character. There is no time for a breather here.
