''Bandit Queen'' is a 1994 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

action-adventure film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

based on the life of Phoolan Devi as covered in the book ''India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi'' by the Indian author

Mala Sen Mala Sen (3 June 1947 – 21 May 2011) was a Bengali-Indian- British writer and human rights activist. As an activist, she was known for her civil rights activism and race relations work in London during the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the Brit ...

. It was written, produced, and directed by

Shekhar Kapur Shekhar Kulbhushan Kapur (born 6 December 1945) is an Indian filmmaker and actor. Born into the Anand-Sahni family, Kapur is the recipient of several accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a National Film Award, a National Board of Review Award a ...

and starred

Seema Biswas Seema Biswas (born 14 January 1965) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films and the theatre. She gained prominence after playing the role of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur's film ''Bandit Queen'' (1994), for which she won the National F ...

as the title character. The music was composed by

Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ( pa, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music. Sometimes ...

. The film won the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several ...

, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction for that year. The film was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the

1994 Cannes Film Festival The 47th Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 1994. The Palme d'Or went to the American film '' Pulp Fiction'' directed by Quentin Tarantino. The festival opened with '' The Hudsucker Proxy'', directed by Joel Coen and closed with ''S ...

, and was screened at the

Edinburgh Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all t ...

. The film was selected as the Indian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

67th Academy Awards The 67th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 27, 1995, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ce ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot

The film opens in the summer of 1968 at a small village in Uttar Pradesh. Phoolan is married to a twenty-something year old man called Puttilal (

Aditya Shrivastava Aditya Srivastava (born 21 July 1968) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and theatre. He is best known for his role as Senior Inspector Abhijeet in India's longest-running television police procedural '' C.I.D.''. He has ...

). Though child marriages were customary during that time, Phoolan's mother Moola (Savitri Raekwar) objects to the timing of the match. Phoolan's aging father Devideen (Ram Charan Nirmalker) conforming to his culture, regrettably disagrees, and Phoolan is sent off with Puttilal. Phoolan is exposed to some sexual and exploitative abuses, including the

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

. (Phoolan's family, as well as Puttilal's family, belong to the lower-ranked

Mallah The Mallaah are the traditional boatmen and fishermen tribes or communities of North India, East India, Northeastern India and Pakistan. A significant number of Mallah are also found in Nepal and Bangladesh. In the Indian state of Bihar, the ter ...

sub-caste; the higher ranked Thakur caste takes the lead in social and political situations.) Puttilal is physically and sexually abusive, and Phoolan eventually runs away and returns home. As Phoolan grows older, she faces incidents of (non-consensual) fondling and groping from the Thakur men (whose parents make up the ''

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical men ...

'' or village government). At the next town meeting, the ''panchayat'' wield their patriarchal authority to banish Phoolan from the village, since she will not consent to the sexual advances of the higher caste males, who treat her like sub-human chattel. Accordingly, Phoolan lives with her cousin Kailash (

Saurabh Shukla Saurabh Shukla (born 5 March 1963) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, and film director who works in Hindi and a few Tamil and Telugu films. He is famous for his roles in ''Satya'' (1998), '' Nayak: The Real Hero'' (2001), '' Yuva'' (2004), ''L ...

). En route to another village, she encounters a troop of ''daku''s (bandits) of the Babu Gujjar gang, led by Vikram Mallah Mastana (

Nirmal Pandey Nirmal Pandey (10 August 1962 – 18 February 2010) was an Indian Bollywood actor who was known for his role of Vikram Mallah in Shekhar Kapur's ''Bandit Queen'' (1994),and Dajjal in Television Series Hatim, for portraying a transvestite in '' ...

). Phoolan stays with Kailash for a while but is eventually compelled to leave. Angry and hopeless, Phoolan goes to the local police to try to have her ban lifted, but she is beaten, molested, and arrested by the police, who rapes her while in custody. The Thakurs put up bail and have her released. But, unknown to her, the bail is a bribe (paid, through the police, to Babu Gujjar's gang), and Babu Gujjar arrives to collect his prize. In May 1979, Phoolan is abducted by Babu Gujjar (

Anirudh Agarwal Anirudh "Ajay" Agarwal (born 20 December 1949) is a retired Indian actor. He is known for his appearances in horror films such as ''Purana Mandir'', '' Bandh Darwaza'', and '' Saamri'' as well as starring in episodes of '' Zee Horror Show''. E ...

). Gujjar is a physically imposing man and a ruthless, predatory mercenary. Although Gujjar's lieutenant Vikram is sympathetic towards Phoolan, Gujjar indiscriminately brutalizes and humiliates her, until one day Vikram catches him raping her (yet again) and shoots him in the head. Vikram takes over the gang, and his empathy for Phoolan eventually grows into a mutually respectful mature adult relationship. All goes well until Thakur Shri Ram ( Govind Namdeo) is released from prison. Thakur Shri Ram is the real gang leader (boss of the erstwhile Gujjar). Shri Ram returns to his gang and while Vikram receives him with respect, Shri Ram bristles at Vikram's egalitarian leadership style and covets Phoolan. Around this time, Phoolan revisits her former husband Puttilal, and with Vikram's help, abducts him and exacts her justice for his rape and abuse, beating him up. She shares her closure with Vikram. In August 1980, Shri Ram arranges to have Vikram assassinated, and abducts Phoolan, bringing her to the village of Behmai. Phoolan is repeatedly raped and beaten by Shri Ram and by the rest of the gang members, as punishment for her "disrespect" for his previous advances, and for her audacity at being equal. The stunning and disturbing final humiliation and punishment is that she is stripped naked, paraded around Behmai, beaten, and sent to fetch water from the well (in full view of the village). A severely traumatized Phoolan returns to her cousin Kailash. She recovers gradually and seeks out Man Singh (

Manoj Bajpai Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

), an old friend of Vikram Mallah. Man Singh brings her to another large gang, led by Baba Mustakim (

Rajesh Vivek Rajesh Vivek Upadhyay (31 January 1949 – 14 January 2016) was an Indian actor. He is best known to Hindi film audiences for his role as the astrologer Guran in '' Lagaan'' (2001) and as the postmaster Nivaran in '' Swades'' (2004). He had ...

). She relates her history to Baba and asks him for some men and weapons to form a gang. Baba Mustakim agrees, and Man Singh and Phoolan become the leaders of the new gang. Phoolan leads her new gang with courage, generosity, humility, and shrewdness. Her stockpile and her legend grow. She becomes known as Phoolan Devi, the bandit queen. In February 1981, Baba Mustakim informs her of a large wedding in Behmai, with Thakur Shri Ram in attendance. As Phoolan departs, Baba Mustakim warns her to remain low-key. Phoolan attacks the wedding party and her gang exacts revenge on the entire Thakur clan of Behmai. They round up the men and beat them up. Many of the men are finally shot. This act of vengeance brings her to the attention of the national law enforcement authorities (in New Delhi). The top police officials now begin a massive manhunt for Phoolan, and Thakur Shri Ram relishes the opportunity to come to their aid. The manhunt claims many lives in Phoolan's gang. They are ultimately forced to hide out in the rugged ravines of Chambal without any food or water. Phoolan evaluates her options and decides to surrender. Her terms are to have her remaining mates protected and provided for (the women and children in particular). The film ends with Phoolan's surrender in February 1983. The end credits indicate that all the charges against her were withdrawn (including the charges of murder at Behmai), and that she was released in 1994.

Cast

as Phoolan Devi *

as Vikram Mallah *

Aditya Srivastava Aditya Srivastava (born 21 July 1968) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and theatre. He is best known for his role as Senior Inspector Abhijeet in India's longest-running television police procedural '' C.I.D.''. He has ...

as Puttilal *

Gajraj Rao Gajraj Rao is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi films. He is widely known for his performance in the comedy drama film '' Badhaai Ho'' for which he also won a Filmfare Award. He debuted in 1994 with a minor role in Shekhar Kapu ...

as Ashok Chand Thakur (Sarpanch's son) *

as Kailash *

Manoj Bajpayee Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

as Daku Maan Singh *

Raghuvir Yadav Raghubir Yadav is an Indian actor, music composer, singer and set designer who works in Hindi films. He made his film debut with '' Massey Sahib'' (1985), in which he played the title role. He has won two International Awards as Best Actor for ...

as Madho *

as Baba Mustakim *

as Babu Gujjar *

Govind Namdev Govind Namdev (born 3 September 1954) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Namdev made his debut as a corrupt cop in David Dhawan's '' Shola Aur Shabnam'' (1992). He has acted in numerous movies, often as a villain. He is an alumnus o ...

as Thakur Shri Ram *

as a Lorry driver (cameo appearance)

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ( pa, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music. Sometimes ...

, with Khan also voicing the non-instrumental pieces in the soundtrack which include tracks based on traditional

Rajasthani music This type of music originates from the Rajasthan, one of the states of India and home to several important centers of Indian musical development, including Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur. The region's music shares similarities both with nearby are ...

Release

Box office

In India, the film grossed (). In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $399,748 (). Combined, the film grossed approximately () worldwide.

Controversy

Although Phoolan Devi is a heroine in the film, she fiercely disputed its accuracy and fought to get it banned in India. She even threatened to

immolate Immolation may refer to: *Death by burning *Self-immolation, the act of burning oneself *Immolation (band), a death metal band from Yonkers, New York *''The Immolation'', a 1977 novel by Goh Poh Seng *''Dance Dance Immolation'', an interactive per ...

herself outside a theater if the film were not withdrawn. Eventually, she withdrew her objections after the producer

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

paid her £40,000. Author-activist

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

in her film review entitled, "The Great Indian Rape Trick", questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission", and charged Shekhar Kapur with exploiting Phoolan Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.

Critical reception

The film has a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

approval rating of 100% based on 25 reviews, with an average score of 7.58/10. Jonathan Rosenbaum called it "an eye-filling and often stirring movie", writing that at "its best, this recalls radical third-world '

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

' like

Glauber Rocha Glauber de Andrade Rocha (; 14 March 1939 – 22 August 1981) was a Brazilian film director, actor and screenwriter. He was one of the most influential moviemakers of Brazilian cinema and a key figure of Cinema Novo. His films '' Black God, Whit ...

Antonio das mortes ''Antonio das Mortes'' ( pt, O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro, lit. "The Dragon of Wickedness Against the Holy Warrior") is a 1969 Brazilian western film directed by Glauber Rocha. It is often cited as the last installment of Rocha's ...

as well as

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), '' The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Ugets ...

's films about men's inhumanity to women." He writes, however, that the film "despite its ambition, bracing anger, and visual panache ... remains many notches below such reference points because of its sensationalistic and fairly indiscriminate piling on of horrors and violence, which ultimately becomes pornographic. The issue isn't what actually happened to Phoolan Devi ... The issue is the film's tendency to desensitize us with a surfeit of details." James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing that the "picture of human indignity and suffering painted by ''Bandit Queen'' is on par with that of ''

Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel ''Schindler's Ark'' by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film f ...

''. As the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

treated the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

like animals, so too do the upper caste Indians regard those born into poverty and squalor." "Tightly-paced, powerfully-written, and well-acted", he writes, "''Bandit Queen'' is a first-rate adventure movie." Edward Guthmann of ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and described it as a "handsome, impassioned film" and praised Biswas' performance, calling it "fireball of unrelenting, white-hot fury -- a slap in the face to her country and its barbaric, outdated treatment of women." He notes that the film "makes no pretense of objectivity. Kapur clearly is outraged by the gender and caste biases of his country". This lack of objectivity is countered by Richard Corliss, who called it an "exciting movie that brings Devi's story to life with passion but without passing judgment."''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

''. January 1, 2000.

Awards

39th Valladolid International Film Festival: Nominated * Golden Spike for Best Feature Film – Shekhar Kapur ;

43rd National Film Awards The 43rd National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1995. Ceremony took place on 6 A ...

: * Best Feature Film in Hindi – Kaleidoscope Entertainment *

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

–

* Best Costume Design –

Dolly Ahluwalia Dolly Ahluwalia is an Indian actress and costume designer who was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001 for costume design.40th Filmfare Awards The 40th Filmfare Awards were held on 25 February 1995. '' 1942: A Love Story'' and '' Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!'', which is one of the most successful films of Bollywood, led the ceremony with 13 nominations each, followed by ''Mohra'' with 9 n ...

: Won * Best Film (Critics) –

42nd Filmfare Awards The 42nd Filmfare Awards were held on 23 February 1997, in Mumbai, India. '' Khamoshi: The Musical'' led the ceremony with 13 nominations, followed by ''Maachis'' and ''Raja Hindustani'' with 10 nominations. ''Khamoshi: The Musical'' and ''Raj ...

: * Best Director – Shekhar Kapur * Best Female Debut –

* Best Cinematography –

Ashok Mehta Ashok Mehta (1947 – 15 August 2012) was a noted national film award-winning Indian film cinematographer, known for films such as ''Bandit Queen'' (1994), '' 36 Chowringhee Lane'' (1981) and ''Utsav'' (1984). He won the National Film Award fo ...

Nominated *

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

– Kaleidoscope Entertainment *

– Seema Biswas

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1994 films 1994 action films 1994 crime drama films 1990s biographical drama films Indian action adventure films Indian biographical drama films Indian crime drama films Indian feminist films Films about organised crime in India Films about rape in India Films about sexism Indian rape and revenge films Films about the caste system in India Films about women in India Films directed by Shekhar Kapur 1990s Hindi-language films Cultural depictions of robbers Cultural depictions of Indian women Films that won the Best Costume Design National Film Award Best Hindi Feature Film National Film Award winners Fictional portrayals of the Uttar Pradesh Police Films based on Indian novels Films scored by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan