Film Review: Sherdil (2022)

In a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, the wild animals of the jungle nearby eat the crops and starve the poor villagers. Running out of sources with the poverty line meeting its peak, the sarpanch (leader) of the village Gangaram (Pankaj Tripathi) decides to sacrifice himself in the mouth of the tiger that will aid his family and villagers get compensation through a government scheme. Shocking isn’t it?

Sherdil is actually based on some actual incidents that occurred in 2017 when the police officials accused some elders of the village of setting themselves as bait for tigers to claim compensation and help their families survive. The film depicts that the government acquires the land for wildlife preservation that halts entry for the villagers who had access in the past.

This development is new to me and it is quite tragic that poverty can be so cruel to mankind in some parts of the world. Is the government responsible for this? Wildlife preservation is also necessary. But what about the villagers whose life depended on wildlife and cropping the fertile land?

It is good to notice that Bollywood is ready for producing films based on wildlife. Vidya Balan starrer Sherni was released last year and Sherdil this year. Stories like these are what the audience is willing to spend their quality time on. What attracts more about Sherdil is that Pankaj Tripathi in the lead displayed a sensational performance of a highly innocent village sarpanch. Pankaj’s monologue in the court and his encounter with the tiger is his top acting features.

Besides a fabulous Pankaj Tripathi, Sayani Gupta surprised me with an impressive supporting role. Neeraj Kabi as the poacher Jim Ahmad had the most interesting dialogues in the film to listen to. Dialogues as well as cinematography were excellent.

Yes, there were minuses. It is impossible to have a perfect film without any objections. One major problem is the length of the film. With content so limited, this film is easily an 80 to maximum 90-minute drama but is actually two hours long. The film is awfully stretched in Gangaram searching for a tiger and convincing everyone that he has to take his life for good. Plus, needless songs are picturized on the lush scenery of the jungle.

With such an impressive story and casting well supported by other technicalities, Sherdil still lacks a ‘WOW’ factor. There is something about Sherdil that makes me think that this still cannot be counted as one of the best films of the year. Maybe the pace of the film and the last fifteen minutes are the reasons.

Sherdil is a wildlife drama with a very important message. Pankaj Tripathi fans should not miss this film.

RATINGS = 6.5/10

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Movie Review: Gulaab Gang (2014)

When producers decide to produce a movie on a very important subject, they should promise that they will choose an experienced director. The biggest reason why ‘Gulaab Gang’ failed to impress on box-office despite casting Bollywood’s two massive actresses, is the direction. Soumik Sen who wrote flop movies like Anthony Kaun Hai?, Ru-Ba-Ru and Meerabai Not Out, is handed responsibility to direct the movie for the first time in his career. Not only did he direct, but even compose music :S How can producers go for a debutant director when industry has some big names to make socio.political movies like Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen), Tigmanshu Dhulia (Paan Singh Tomar) or Rahul Dholakia (Parzania)?

Now before I insult this movie, let me give you brief about actual gang as opposed to what you have to expect or already have watched. The name is not Gulaab Gang but Gulabi Gang and was founded by Sampat Pal Devi when she was 20 years old. She is now a social activist from Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. This gang was founded to fight against violence against women. This gang is running for past 33 years and is composed of almost 270,000 members according to Hindustan Times and 400,000 members till 2014 according to Al-Jazeera report.

The movie begins with introductory narration by one of the best narrators in film industry. Nope not Raza Murad, not even Amitabh Bachchan nor Gulzar saab. Who are they? I am talking about Anil Kapoor. Yes Anil Kapoor!! :S The jhakaas guy has delivered his voice for couple-of-minute narration. The village is called Madhavpur which actually is in Nepal :S If I call it Madhavpur Ghed, then it is in state of Gujrat but not in U.P. 

Too much fictional work on such an important subject wastes the enthusiasm of watching it. Name of Sampat Pal Devi is Rajjo in movie. She wanted to study but her step-mother didn’t let her. In few seconds, adult Rajjo has her ashram!!! :S For God sake!! Why the origin of gang is ruthlessly ignored?? How come the director just think of making his point to dismiss the logic of ladies in pink saaris holding bamboo sticks. You have to show some piece of origins even if it take 5 minutes.All we know is that they are for protection of women against every violence but what exactly made Sampat Devi form this gang? 

Gang’s main members don’t even look that rural as the reality is. The way the gang members talk, few of them are even showing their sexy bellies put a huge doubt of Rajjo’s motto of running the gang. You won’t believe it but Rajjo’s gang is also a group of dancers, they know the song played in the air and have practiced dance steps to play together. And strong-on-paper Rajjo will all of a sudden present her latkas and jhatkas because Rajjo knows the viewers will enjoy all this. Action scenes are very terrible, some gulabi ladies hit men so hard that they even flew away :P

Madhavpur political interference is the heat which blows off when rivalry of two different faces take another stage. Two faces of coin and two big actresses of same era which is the most important marketing propaganda of the movie dumps with a jaw dropper. Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla share the screen for the first time in 28 years and appeared together only 4 times in the whole movie but sadly there was no heat. Director failed to create magic.

If movie has anything to look after for that is only Madhuri Dixit. She brings the soul in Rajjo character. While Juhi Chawla just couldn’t fit in the role nor was she that tough to play the role of antagonist. We have seen corrupt minister or politician a billion times in movies played by men and this lady need no introduction for this role as it is understood that she will bring omen to Rajjo party. In assistancy, Gangor-fame Priyanka Bose and Divya Jagdale did fair job but as I said before, these individuals don’t resemble gulabi ladies. Imagine ladies like Nandita Das, Seema Biswas, Divya Dutta or even Pratima Kazmi being gulabi would bring some realism. Forget all ladies, Madhuri playing Sampat Devi!!! It was just director’s strategy to publicize the movie with Madhuri-Juhi element, the formula which didn’t work. 

Another reason of this movie failing in box-office was the international documentary ‘Gulabi Gang‘ which showed true origins and stories of the gang. Sampat Devi herself was part of the documentary. This documentary released in India a week before Gulaab Gang. With origins understood, a fictional or fake movie was discouraged by the viewers. And I will also recommend the readers to watch Gulabi Gang instead of this failed venture.

Ratings: 3.5/10

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Movie Review: Manjunath (2014)

Manjunath is a Hindi movie based on real-life tragic incident about a 27 year-old young man Manjunath Shanmugam, who worked in IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) as sales officer who was shot dead on duty by a petrol pump owner and goons for sealing owner’s petrol pump for selling adulterated petrol in Lakhimpur Kheri, UP in 2005.

Manjunath is one of deceased individuals in India who was murdered while serving his job honestly. Last year, we watched Hansal Mehta’s Shahid who served his country with honesty as a lawyer and paid the price.

Lows of the movie???? As compared to Shahid, sadly this movie couldn’t do that level of justice as was expected to show. Movie is off-color with flat dialogues, very average performances and never fitting background score due to reasonably being a low-budget despite being produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.

Director fails to milk an inspiring story and at many occasions, high break-pointing scenes don’t create any sensation to grow your nerves. Drunk Manjunath’s attempt of romancing his friend in her room is so cold as well as the most important scene of Manjunath’s murder goes poiseless. The debutant actor who played Manjunath do resemble Manjunath a lot but fails to inspire the viewer due to lack of acting skills or experience. I may choose Madhavan over him if I was director.

 

Plus point of the movie is that going from Manjunath’s IOC work till his murder, it will HITTT YOUUU HARDDDD!!!! Making this movie was a brave attempt keeping in mind the movie exposed corruption in state of Uttar Pradesh as some part of movie was shot in Lucknow including Indian Institute of Management (IIM) where he did his MBA.

Also what goes ahead is all Manjunath’s moments/scenes with his parents which were very realistic and touching. Casting well-known artists like Seema Biswas, Divya Dutta, Kishore Kadam and Yashpal Sharma brought more attention.

Despite being a sorry state of movie-making, Manjunath holds a strong message and raises voice to reduce if not dismantle corruption. A one-time but a must-watch movie. The film was supported by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust through which the support of IIM-Lucknow and Manjunath’s parents were enlisted.

Ratings: 5.7/10

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