What’s the brouhaha over Bandaa

Pretty much all courtroom dramas hinge on a verbal showdown that neatly underlines the picturersquos point ldquoThe final monologuerdquomdashas debutant filmmaker Apoorv Singh Karki of the scintillating Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai Bandaa on Zee5 calls itTherersquos that Amitabh Bachchan line ldquoNo means nordquo if you recall from Aniruddha Roy Chowdhuryrsquos Pink 2016 Likewise probably my favourite Naseeruddin Shah as a maulvi delivering ldquoDeen mein dadhi hai dhaadi mein deen nahinrdquo in Shoaib Mansoorrsquos Pakistani film Khuda Kay Liye 2007Whorsquos ever forgotten Sunny Deolrsquos ldquoTareeq pe tareeqrdquo from Rajkumar Santoshirsquos Damini 1993 for instance And itrsquos inevitably this climactic courtroom sequence with actor Manoj Bajpayee rendering a soliloquy of sorts thatrsquos first blown over those who watched Bandaa isnrsquot itItrsquos also director Karkirsquos favourite scene because he tells me ldquoThere are three layers to it One is the defence counselrsquos Vipin Sharma point of view Second is where Bajpayee patiently details an episode from Ramayan as a lsquokatha vachakrsquo storytellerldquoAnd then in the final part he bursts into lsquoYeh Raavan hai Raavanrsquo Thatrsquos when you truly feel the frustration of lawyer P C Solanki up against dangerous odds still on the case for five yearsrdquoApoorv Singh Karki the director of the courtroomdrama film PicsTwitterThe ldquoRaavanrdquo here is obviously modelled on Asaram Bapu accused of molesting a minor in his ashram Among the mostwatched mainstream filmsseriesmdashboth Rajkumar Hiranirsquos PK 2014 and Prakash Jharsquos Aashram 2020 MX Player have engagingly exposed lsquogodmenrsquo for the oxymorons they are Many are not even good men let alone god And yet those content pieces have been ludicrously panned by some for being antireligionKarki as director wished foremost to steer clear of such needless criticism He says ldquoI am adhyatmik religiousspiritual myself So is Manoj Bajpayee The idea behind that monologue was to speak of the good that dharm faith representsmdashrespect for women fellow humanshellip Once you do that it becomes possible to separate the lsquodhongisrsquo charlatansrdquoLawyer Solankirsquos speech recounts how Lord Shiva refused to grant his greatest disciple Raavan an audience He explains to wife Parvati why Because Raavan committed the worst of all sinsmdashie not that he abducted Sita but that he pretended to be a sadhu doing itSomething tells me this courtroom scene will go down as among the best Karkirsquos other favourite from Bandaa is where Bajpayeersquos character invokes religion againmdashlikening goddesses Durga Kali to calm down the survivor whorsquos given up hope and wants to commit suicide ldquoThe lawyer sees her as bacchi little girl as against a victim that society will deem herrdquoBandaa zeroes in on the 2012 law POCSO Protection of Children from Sexual Offences One of the challenges for Karki was to get technicalauthentic on matters of the court without alienating lay audiencesWhich explains how Bandaa has turned out as much a courtroom drama as a legal proceduralmdashgetting the godman right and the equally costumed finery of lawcourts as wellYou can visually relate to the likes of bighitters lsquoRam Jethmalanirsquo lsquoSubramanian Swamyrsquo lsquoSalman Khurshidrsquomdashbatting for lsquoAsaram Bapursquosrsquo bail while the case for acquittal carries on alongsideIn the middle of this is of course the publicprosecutor protagonistmdashP C Solanki name unchanged from Jodhpur who also participated in the filmrsquos writing Karki says Bajpayee only once met Solanki for an hour before they began shootThis reallife person that Bajpayee was meant to play had been pitched to him by the producers Vinod Bhanushali Suparn Verma He could pick a director of his choice This is when the actor was watching the fab TVFYouTube series Aspirants that the Delhibased Karki had directedAspirants is set in Delhirsquos Rajender Nagar world of IAS exam competitorsmdash lsquoKota Factoryrsquo for UPSC if you may Which tallies with Karkirsquos own life After doing a few odd jobs in Bollywood Karki originally from Nainital had left Bombay in 2013 owing to poor health He pursued IAS entrance after but failed the testImpressed with Aspirants Bajpayee handed Karki his feature film debut This is quite in line with how Bajpayee 30 has been working latelymdashhis first phenomenal phase was postSatya 1998 onwards the second largely low phase after Jaago 2004 and an absolute revival with Rajneeti 2011 and thereafterThis is when you could also sense him nurturingattracting a miniecosystem of indie relatively untested filmmaking talentsmdashpicking up tough parts for himself totally undeterred by their potentially popular appeal aloneWhether that be capturing the beats of deadened life as a retired cop in Devashish Makhijarsquos brooding Bhonsle 2020 Sony LIV or what he considers his best work yet as the lead in the even quieter and depressingly sombre Gali Guleiyan 2018 Prime VideoThe absolute entertainer Bandaa has come right after Bajpayeersquos glorious Gulmohar 2023 Disney Hotstar by newbie Rahul ChittellaBandaa is probably the first Indian film to hit theatres on popular demand after premiering on OTT Unless you count the postNetflix theatrical release of RRR in the USThrice Irsquove picked up a ticket and not showed up for Bandaa at the cinema Knowing itrsquos online gets you lazy AF How much fun itrsquoll be to watch audiences respond to the courtroom climax scene thoughCanrsquot replace audiencesrsquo claps at home no NopeMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper