Jul 12, 2005 12:00 PM
5781 Views
(Updated Jul 12, 2005 12:00 PM)
Cast: Tulip Joshi, Sushant Singh, Sudhir Pandey, Piyush Mishra
Director: Manish Jha
The movie explores a society without women because of rampant female infanticide. The story is set up somewhere in rural Bihar where a whole village is without women. Sudhir Pandey is a widower and father of five young lads. He has been constantly trying to find brides for his sons with help of a priest (Piyush Mishra) but without successes, as there are no women left in the surrounding area. One day the priest stumbled upon a girl (Tulip Joshi) while he was on a visit to a nearby village and manages to convince the girl’s father to marry her daughter to all five sons of Sudhir Pandey in lieu of a hefty amount of Rs. 5 lakh. While the five brothers were making the sharing arrangement for the bride their father also demands his share. The bride was forced to sleep with all her five husbands along with her father-in-law. She starts getting closer to the youngest brother [Sushant Singh], the only one who treats her like a human being, much to the discomfort of the father and other brothers. They could not tolerate the intimacy between Sushant Singh and Tulip Joshi and eliminate Sushant Singh. The girl makes an unsuccessful attempt to flee and in repose her husbands chain her in a cowshed in inhuman conditions where sex-starved villagers repeatedly raped her. She gets pregnant and than starts the fight for paternity first among the brothers and their father and later among villagers which leads to a series of violence.
The Movie is directed by 25-year-old Manish Jha and the movie has won lots of awards at various film festivals. The director has done a commendable job by successfully creating rural Bihar on celluloid. All the actors have acted brilliantly specially the actor who has played the role of eldest son of Sudhir Pandey.
Though many critics have projected as a hard-hitting revolutionary movie but in my opinion the movie has gone overboard while showing man’s attitude towards women. The director’s portrayal of men as shameless sex maniacs is more than believable. This is not the movie that remains in your mind once you are out of cinema hall.
A director’s ability comes in where message is conveyed without characters saying much and in this department director has failed miserably. The director could have shown many incidents in a subtle manner. In one of the scenes when the father openly asks his sons for his share in the bride, the scene gives you chuckles and not shocking disbelief.
If you are expecting a hard-hitting realistic movie as from the likes of Govind Nihlani and Shyam Benegal than you would be disappointed as Manish Jha has a long way to go before coming even closer to Govind Nihlani and Shyam benegal. But it’s a very good attempt by a debutant young director. If your visit to a multiplex is not pre-planned and you are not getting Tickets for Sarkar, I would advise you to choose this movie over “Dus”, “Fareb” and “Yakeen”.
P.S: don't commmit the mistake of watching this movie with your wife or girlfriend
