STORY
‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hay‘ is a courtroom drama about Advocate Solanki who fights a case of a minor girl who was raped by a very popular spiritual leader, Baba. This film is based on a true story. In 2013, the spiritual leader Asaram was accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. Almost five years later, Asaram was found guilty and was sentenced to life. During this time, Asaram was denied bail 12 times.
REVIEW
I think the aesthetics of the film-making didn’t do justice. The film’s opening phase ran too quickly. The main characters were not settled in the script. The writers must have prioritized to carefully introduce the victim and his family on one side, and Baba and his ashram on the other. And give a dedicated shot at running those moments thoroughly for around 15 minutes.
I do not suggest dramatizing a sexual assault of a minor girl at all. But I do not believe that the director Apoorv Singh Karki was bold to give us a haunting vibe. If the content is so sensitive, the director needs to take risks of making the audience feel discomfort. Moreover, the pressure on Solanki was immense but the dramatization about his life in danger looked more dramatic than real. Knowing the fact that Asaram’s arrest was met with violent demonstrations across the country by his supporters, the film didn’t meet that tone.
Like several films, the background score disturbed the momentum. The courtroom drama had the promises but at some moment, Advocate Solanki teasing a few people around the court was distracting a very serious tone. I do not understand how come Baba was not brought in front for testing and interrogating.
PERFORMANCES
The actress Adrija Sinha who played the victim executed such a sensitive role very well and confidently. Observe, when her statement to Advocate Solanki closes at her hopelessly crying. Manoj Bajpayee played Advocate Solanki but what is special about such an excellent performance is that he act it differently. The body language and the accent was different. And the reason for Manoj being so different in the film is that Manoj adopted mannerism and personality of the real-life Advocate Solanki.
CLOSING REMARKS
I have no clue how did this film win 5 Filmfare OTT awards. Only Manoj deserved to win but this is not one of his best performances despite being so different. ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hay’ deserved a Hansal Mehta or Anubhav Sinha treatment for such a story.
RATING 5/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 