MovieChat Forums > Bandit Queen (1995) Discussion > Don't take this movie as truth.

Don't take this movie as truth.

posted 18 years ago by infy_leo
15 replies | jump to latest

To any viewer who has or want to watch this movie....just take a moment to consider this.

This movie is NOT the real account of the life of Phoolan Devi. This is a work of fiction cleverly (or should I say cunningly) disguised as truth so to get it passed from the Indian Censor. Yes it was passed without any cuts and No it was not banned in India and is available freely in full form.

I won't be a hypocrite and won't defend any of the brutal deeds committed by high caste thakurs as shown in the movie But the fact remains that Mr. Shekhar Kapoor made this movie not with any feeling of sympathy for Phoolan devi But to make a movie with all the typical bollywood masalas so he could sell and show it to the West. After all India is Exotic, isn't it. And HE is a good director.

Mr Shekhar Kapoor didn't even meet Phoolan Devi once before making this movie nor did he take her permission. About the book on which this movie is based.....the director has taken too many liberties and has Only and very consciously selected those parts which could be made exotic cinematically. One such example is the scene in which Phoolan is shown killing 22 thakurs(climax) but the reality was that Phoolan Devi only killed those thakurs who insulted her not all 22 but Mr Kapoor didn't show that otherwise the cinematic impact(especially the foreign souls) would be lesson.

Phoolan Devi was killed by some unknown persons after a few years she won a parliament election. So the Thakurs finally completed their revenge. That incident made me very sad and Mr Shekhar Kapoor is no less a culprit than those murderers who shot her. Anybody who has seen his movie would consider that as truth. But who cares about finding the REAL truth. After all truth doesn't sell as well.

So watch this movie if you want but for God sake don't consider it as any real life story of Phoolan Devi. This is just another bollywood potboiler.

[–] a758530 9 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoolan_Devi#Relationship_with_Vikram_Mallah
While yet a teenager, Phoolan ran away from her husband and joined a gang of bandits. She was the only woman in that gang, and her relationship with one gang member, coupled with other minor factors, caused a gunfight between gang members. Phoolan's lover was killed in that gunfight and Phoolan was gang-raped by the victorious rival faction. She then rallied the remnants of her dead lover's faction, took another lover from among those men, and wrecked revenge upon Behmai, the village where she had been raped.[2] As many as twenty-two Rajput men belonging to that village were lined up and shot dead. Not a single one of these men had raped or otherwise harmed Phoolan - their crime was that they belonged to Behmai village, were male, and belonged to the Rajput caste to which Phoolan's rapists had belonged.

The press portrayed the Behmai massacre as an act of righteous lower-caste rebellion and Phoolan herself as an oppressed feminist Robin Hood. The respectful sobriquet 'Devi' was conferred upon her by the media at this point. However, Indian police authorities state unequivocally that there is no recorded instance of Phoolan ever having helped a single person who was poor or needy, and that the feminist Robin Hood image is a media-created myth.[3][4] Her only motivation, they say, was revenge and hatred towards an entire caste of people.

Whether or not you believe Wikipedia, why would you believe her autobiography anyways? Is a criminal ever gonna confess the truth? Funny how Indian feminists defend these b*tches much like the press do - well as long as she is a WOMAN, it is okay even if she murders, after all, the victims deserved it ain't it? Reverse the genders and imagine the book was written by Veerappan then OP would be singing a different tune altogether