The steely, grit, grime of Sonchiriya

Theres a casual moment in Abhishek Chaubeys Sonchiriya that releases this Friday where cops on the lookout for dacoits in Chambal intercept a possible accomplice while patrolling late at night If Im not mistaken the young fellow mentions the lack of horses around to allay cops suspicions that dacoits would be Its got to be an inside jokeThe first thing Im told locals of Chambal asked the castcrew of Shekhar Kapurs Phoolan Devi biopic Bandit Queen 1994 when they learnt that some daku picture was being shot in their area was well Where are the horsesNone of the dacoits that these men from the beehad ravines of northcentral India had personally known over years had ever mounted a horse But its in the movies And for lack of a better description Sonchiriya with the same timeplace setting as the dark disturbingly real Bandit Queen or Paan Singh Tomar for a fair portion is a WesternWhich regardless of its multiple subgenres with names often derived from food itemsmdashSpaghetti both Italian and Mexican termed Macaroni in Japan Sauerkraut in Germany etcmdashought to tick a few boxes given guns galore in an oldworldpremodern story about outdoor valour and male glory of course God knows weve all grown up on the simple semirural desi revenge dacoitdramasOr what got officially termed the Curry Western with Ramesh Sippys Sholay 1975mdashThe Greatest Story Ever Toldmdasha genre that later descended into BCgrade Daku Ramkali type pictures to keep masses enthralled nonethelessMy lesserknown favourite might well be Joshilaay 1989 partly directed by Shekhar Kapur since he walked out of the film midway The creaking sound of a rotating village toy and the villain Yogi Thakurs Rajesh Vivek thick twang used to freak the shit out of me as a kid While the heyday of the bandits in Sonchiriya is basically left to the audiences imaginationmdashwe dont quite see it to be able to fully appreciate the contrastmdashthe film deliberately subverts the genre to totally humanise its protagonists insteadmdashin a way that all good art attempts toWhy should a plot chiefly centred on three dacoits Sushant Singh Rajput Ranvir Shorey Manoj Bajpayee wallowing in a state of pathetic decay be any different Yeah they look slightly down and out although hardly low on energy when the moment demands itThe fact that you cant tell these bestsuited actors from their stellar characters across the board is a surest sign of fine writing something we dont appreciate enough while going gaga over newage stars on screen Sure there are cops in the movie And there are dacoits and people of various shades or castesmdashGujjars Thakurs Malhar Brahminmdashthe only lens to truly view these parts or indeed most of India traditionally obsessed with binaries of honour and revenge But among all of them there are baaghis rebels within baaghis within baaghis making this an Inception of sortsSolidly competent supremely confident director Chaubey disclaimer friend employs all of this material to gently play with form unfortunately not humour in whats supposed to be a highoctane action film first and a somewhat overwrittenovercooked plot thereaftermdashwith a series of backandforths and delayed reveals So you notice a soft song drowning out a maddening combat sequencemdasha tropemotif he used just as effectively with the song Ik Kudi in Udta Punjab Or you observe key adrenaline heavy moments unexpectedly frozen on screenmdashwhether its to do with cops who have holed up dacoits or a bunch of dacoits with guns against each others heads Chaubeys Dedh Ishqiya had a funny version of the latterChaubeys debut Ishqiya also set in northern badlands was a lot more adorably fruity compared to this manic grittiness And so its a lot more to intriguing to follow a woman Bhumi Pednekar through this cycle of bloodshedmdashthat the state finds impossible to control given that it has partially lost its monopoly over violenceThe setting is real the beehad ravines of Madhya Pradesh The language Bundelkhandi is authentic enough for you to absorb very little without English subtitles And thats possibly the reason this film has been made in the first placemdash to retrace the rugged terrain that still look the same and once produced a series of deadly dakus who are dead while their mythologies very much live onBeyond the folklore the film zeroes in on what individuallypersonally drove these dacoits or did not rather than digging deeper into the socialpolitical subtext of Indira Gandhis India or the 1975 Emergencymdashthe official radio announcementdeclaration of which sets Sonchiriya in motionThe legend of Phulya Phoolan Devi alive and kicking ass back then still runs deeps in these ravines As a movie buff back in my teens nothing couldve prepared me for the chilling aftereffect of Kapurs Bandit Queen 1994 and a sleepless nightmdashhaving stepped out of a screening that was obviously meant for adultsAlmost exactly 25 years since arguably the faaduest Indian film ever Chaubeys Sonchiriya comes across as an equally fine fabulously crafted tribute to Chambal itself And the Curry Westernmdashwithwithout the curry or the Western Yeah ought to catch it againMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates