Okay, let’s do some Monkey Baat!

A still from Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Bandar’, starring Bobby Deol

There's a shot in Anurag Kashyap's Bandar (opens in theatres, June 5) wherein, for a split second, you notice the indelible ink on Bobby Deol's finger, while he jostles inside a lock-up he's been stuffed into, at the police station - picked up from home, in the middle of the night, without sufficient explanation for why he's there in the first place.

I don't know if this metaphor's intended. The ink on the index finger signifies he's recently voted in the elections. Which is kinda useless, if you so easily lose all other democratic rights, alongside, anyway; no?

Bobby plays a has-been actor in Bandar. He's been accused of rape by a woman he casually dated, briefly. The law suggests, as does this film - he's guilty, until proven innocent.

Burden of proof rests on the defendant alone. What follows is a sickening ordeal, with the legal process - lock-up, judicial custody, disgrace, extortion, media-trial over an under-trial - being the punishment itself.

The film, hence, wholly from the PoV of the male protagonist, inverses the gender politics, in such a case. Bandar is still a political film - if you define politics, after all, as merely a response to systemic injustice, of any kind.

I enjoyed deeply engaging with Bandar, for all the ‘monkey baat' that could come after - as with every good film, that ought to be conversation-starters, first; what else?

Shortly after the screening, the producer of Bandar, former actor, Nikhil Dwivedi (Raavan, Shor in the City), tells me, the film originated from an unpublished book - I suppose, non-fiction - that, given concerns over privacy, he can't reveal its author.

Nikhil went over with the manuscript to screenwriter, Sudip Sharma (Paatal Lok, Kohrra). Next stop: Kashyap as director. The rest is Bobby D!

Bandar starts with haggard Bobby, a Rahul Roy kinda figure, performing a popular song from his heyday, for a pittance, yet humiliated, at a Delhi function. Somehow, this scene harks back to an infamous, 2016 event, at a Delhi nightclub, where ‘DJ Waale Bobby' was on the console, once - belting his hit Bollywood title-track, Gupt, on loop, when the patrons reportedly demanded refund, expecting a wider playlist!

That's how the '90s star, Bobby, briefly got back into the news, lost to ravages of time, otherwise. In the film, Bobby speaks eloquently through the worry lines on his forehead. If anything, you can barely tell between the moment he's incarcerated, and the life before it, spent in the prison of his own faded glory. Being accused of rape - that's a verdict in itself - is the final nail.

To be sure, laws on the matter are deeply lopsided. Yet, they're aimed at India's dark interiors, where women even stepping out, after dark, is deemed a privilege, let alone reporting sexual crimes.

Can laws be misused still? Consider my own, unrelated, stray case. I've had three female online stalkers in the past. None of whom I know, personally.

They could well be the same person. Two, I've reported to the police - while, over an offline conversation, a cop once wondered aloud, what to do? No Indian law prevents a woman from stalking!

Bobby's Samar in Bandar meets the girl in question on a dating app. Newspapers regularly report casualties from casual ties, emerging from such platforms, in the real world. Distrust exists.

Kashyap, the king of grime, employs the story as a take-off point to survey inner workings of a Mumbai/Taloja jail, full of under-trials, that feels like such a lived experience - that I haven't watched as realistically captured since the Raj Kundra starrer, UT69 (2023), set in Arthur Road jail, surprised me like, how!

There's seldom any respite. All actors (especially cops), almost uniformly shine, in Bandar - from Sanya Malhotra (Samar's sister) to Joju George (my Mallu favourite), debuting in Hindi.

It's true that the female complainant's (Sapna Pabbi) part feels under-written. That's also a matter of the picture's perspective.

Equally true that since #MeToo (2018), there hasn't been any effective Hindi film as a direct response to it, while at least a couple of movies have kinda flipped the narrative (Section 375, Accused) to show another side.

Bandar, co-directed by Sakshi Mehta, is not a #MeToo movie. In a way that Sudhir Mishra's workplace film Inkaar (2013) was, before the hashtag existed.

Bandar's about a fling gone flop. It portrays an anomaly. Patriarchy remains the prevailing norm. Like a false case, false equivalence is also a real concern.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. I haven't gauged its public response since. It's easy to tell, that could be potentially polarising.

I'll tell you what isn't - empathy. Which is, ideally, absolutist - empty of any distinctions; caste, religion, wealth; gender, included.

You'll feel for Bandar, once you connect with Bobby's character. I did, all along. Some others can always move on - not your circus, not your monkey!

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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