Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Unlike Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen, Indo-Canadian director Richie Mehta’s Phoolan, which premiered at the on-going Toronto International Film Festival here, offers a very focussed take on her siege by police.
Loosely based on ‘I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen,’ the film unfolds as a deadly 48-hour-long encounter between police forces and Phoolan’s gang which has been trapped in a small Chambal village.
As guns blaze and chopper firepower rains from the sky during the bandit queen’s encounter, the film uses flashbacks to tell the tragic life story of a young girl of the Mallah caste from Garhi Ka Purwa village in Kanpur Dehat.
The flashbacks highlight how the circumstances – her child marriage, usurpation of her family’s four bighas of land by her cousin Maya Din and her abduction and gangrape by a Thakur gang of dacoits at her cousin’s instigation – turned her into a rebel or `baaghi.’
In the role of Phoolan Devi, the new actress Sneha Kumari has done a reasonable job of projecting the bandit queen’s raw strength and rebellious streak.
Speaking at the film’s premiere, Sneha Kumari said, “This is my first film I have acted in and I was so happy when I was selected for this role. But at the same time I was nervous how I would portray this strong character (Phoolan Devi) when I did not even know who she was and what she stood for….but Richie directed me to play the role with my heart and with authenticity and just to follow my intuitive emotions. I am so excited to be here in Toronto and for this film to be showcased at TIFF.”
For his part, director Ritchie Mehta said, “I was approached to make this film. However, I did not feel at first that i was the right person to make this film since I was not brought up in India. But when I researched a bit more into it, I felt it had to be interpreted in a different way than what the book portrayed – with an authenticity. And in a manner which was more palatable to the younger generations. I have shown her (Phoolan Devi) strength in the face of adversity from a young age and resilience as a woman in her search for dignity. I hoped this theme would resonate strongly today across cultures and geographies. And it did! At the Toronro premiere we git a standing ovation! I hope I have done justice to her voice and her story.”
