Oct 17, 2005 07:39 PM
7565 Views
(Updated Oct 18, 2005 05:55 PM)
Last month I was alone at hotel in Trivandrum over the weekend and watching TV.. Surfing channels would be the right word... on one of the star channels was coming LOC.. This movie is very close to my heart and I started watching it.. The movie ended around 1.30 after mid night I was about to switch off TV and go to sleep when they announced next movie as Bawandar.. A movie I had heard a lot about and actually wanted to see.. I knew Jug Mundra of “Monsoon” fame is the director.. I was eager to see a director famous for B grade movies (or should I call C grade sex movies) has handled a sensitive real life gangrape story.. A story of a victim’s survival and fight back in our judicial system corrupted by sexism, chauvinism, feudalism and political opportunism.
Jug could have done more.. but in the end one can say he has handled the story maturely.. Not exploited it.. But not enough to create a bawandar -a sandstorm.
The format of the movie is more of a documentary.. still its not boring and has came out as a good account without being too biased.
As most of you must be knowing.. This is based on a real life case of a Sathin- Bhanwari Devi rape case in Rajasthan.. The name of the main character has been changed to Sanwari.. May be just to avoid legal troubles.
The movie is shooted from the angle of a foreign journalist (Laila Rouass) coming to India to write on the rape case; her ex boyfriend help her as the interpreter. They meet Sanwari's husband at Jaipur plying rickshaw and go to the village to meet Sanwari.
Sanwari is like any other village women living her life with her in-laws and fighting poverty.. Her husband is plying rickshaw away from village to meet ends leaving his ancestral trade of pottery.. Sanwari learns reading and writing with the help of her daughter and opposes the cheating by middleman in payment for road filling (govt food for work programme).
The role of Sanwari is played by Nandita Das and her husband Sohan is Raghubeer Yadav.
Shobha Devi(Deepti Naval) playing a mentor for Saathin programme come knocking on her door hearing her story and offers her to join Saathin programme and also offers her a steady income by joining the Saathin programme, Sanwari though not interested in politics and stuff joins them finally for her need of money.. She opposes the child marriage of a upper caste which leads to her boycott from the village.. Deepti chips in with help and upper caste villagers retaliate by raping Sanwari.. Here is the turning point of her life.. She tries to fight for justice. The police doesnt register the case; ask for medical report.. Finally register it. The fight for justice is endless.. Then finally a upper caste lawyer (role superbly underplayed by Gulshan Grover) takes up her case and fights for her but looses.. They go to higher court for justice and fight continues..
There are some other characters and incidents which are well portrayed in this movie like the small town cop( Ravi Jhankal); NGO activists from delhi (Lilette Dubey, etc) coming to help her but more intrested in exploiting the story for their own publicity; local MLA Dhanraj Meena (Govind Namdeo) first promising help than switching over to his caste to save his vote bank and even going to honor the accused in a public function after they are let off by court while one of the accused wife going to Sanwari's home as a mark of respect; Sanwari's inlaws asking for a part of the money Sanwari got from govt as a help; Deepti facing discremination at her own home by her well eductated professor husband(Mohan Bhandari) while she is herself fighting for equality of downtrodden females.
Nandita's has portrayed the character very well especially her struggle for justice is plain simple. Raghubeer's role is small but he supports her well especially as a caring husband after the rape. Gullu as a upper caste lawyer fighting case against his own caste people just because he believes Sanwri needs justice is superb.
In short a heavy movie not the usual multiplex stuff but one should watch if wants to understand the casualness and insensitivity of system towards rape.
Jug has directed well and not treated this as B grade stuff though he had ample scope. Rajasthan has been captured well in frames without an extra effort. Script is a weak point; with a strong subject in hand there should have been more research but may be than it would have become a documentary....
Comments and ratings are welcome
