Bheed Movie Review

Bheed Movie Review

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Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali has been hailed as a moving document of human suffering. Perhaps inspired by that, producer and director Anubhav Sinha decided to make Bheed in black and white to bring out the stark reality of what he was trying to convey. The film focuses on the travails of the

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 migrant workers who were forced to march to their villages in 2020 due to a lockdown imposed by the government to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The film not only sheds light on the plight of the downtrodden but also brings into focus the sharp religious, racial and caste divide that still prevails in

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 our country. The director doesn’t pull any punches. Nor does he indulge in melodrama. Things play out as they would in real life. We’ve all seen them happening around them and have chosen to ignore them. Anubhav Sinha forces a mirror onto us, forcing us to take a harsh look, daring us to look deep into our

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 own reality, unflinchingly. The film is set in a rural outpost which forms the border of two states somewhere in North India. The authorities have imposed a lockdown, which leads to roadblocks everywhere. A police officer Surya (Rajkummar Rao) is asked by his senior (Ashutosh Rana), to

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 command a crucial roadblock. He’s happy to be given this responsibility. Despite wearing a police officer’s uniform, he lacks confidence because of a deeply ingrained sense of inferiority as he belongs to a low caste. He loves a doctor (Bhumi Pednekar) but he’s afraid of marrying her for fear of

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 repercussions, as she’s a brahmin. As the roadblock offers an artery to a different state, it soon sees a large crowd being gathered, despite it being off the main highway. People travelling in cars, buses, trucks and even tractors descend on it, demanding right of the way. Among these a bus belonging to

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 Muslims, another carrying high caste but lower income Hindus, led by a watchman (Pankaj Kapur), a high society woman (Dia Mirza), who is travelling in her posh car to take her daughter home from her boarding school, and a group of newshounds led by Kritika Kamra. An easy assignment turns

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 nightmarish for Surya, as he finds himself in the middle of children bawling for food, women lacking facilities to answer the call of nature and other sanitary needs, politically connected men threatening him with repercussions, while his superiors have no idea how to handle the situation. Things threaten to

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 go out of hand. Thanks to misinformation, Muslims are seen as virus spreaders. Hindus shun the food they’re willing to share, suspecting it of being infected, several people, showing symptoms of the virus, need to be isolated, while others need to be treated for malnutrition. An emergency field hospital gets

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 set up but it’s woefully short of supplies and personnel. Rising hunger leads to a riot-like situation, with people threatening to raid a nearby mall for food. Tempers flare and the old prejudices pile up. Things come to such a state that constant reminders of belonging to a low caste freeze up Surya. He

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 goes into a vegetative state, till circumstances bring about a change. He stands up for what being a policeman truly entails – the welfare of those around him, regardless of class, creed or religion. He goes about doing his duty with his head held high, saving himself in the process, his example offering hope

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 that even during the bleakest of winters, sun might shine. There’s a lesson for everyone in the film. The first and foremost lesson being how deeply ingrained the caste divide is. It’s something the director brought up in Article 15 as well. There, at least, the facade of uniform was maintained. Here, the naked

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 truth emerges in all its ugliness. Another thing it touches upon is the apathy of the media, which is only searching for the next sensational story to increase the TRPs, instead of going after human interest stories. The animosity between different religious groups is brought out as well. Rajkummar Rao’s

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 character raises a valid point when he says that caste doesn’t matter when it comes to survival. The coronavirus has endangered everyone, and the economically backward are the worst affected. They belong to the majority and yet no one cares for them and they increase their misery forming religious

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 and caste divides. But there are positives here as well. At the end, the police personnel realise their humanity and arrange food for everyone. It takes a tragedy for people to unite and for a time at least, let go of their prejudices. Near the end, Dia Mirza’s driver tells her that we need to hold each other’s hands

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 during the time of calamity in order to pass through it. It’s a simple yet powerful statement indeed… The film’s trailer got flak over the internet as it compared the conditions of the mass migration of the workers to India’s Partition, where too, millions were uprooted and used any means necessary to escape

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 the worst. The reality for those belonging to the grassroots hasn’t changed in the intervening years. Kudos to Anubhav Sinha for bringing this crucial message home. We need reminders of our past history, so we don’t succumb to those circumstances again, and Bheed is a powerful reminder indeed.

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 Kudos also to the ensemble cast of actors, comprising Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Ashutosh Rana, Pankaj Kapur and Kritika Kamra for being part of this experimental film and giving their all to their respective roles.

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 TRAILER : BHEED