The social kaleidoscope portrayed on celluloid spilt so much bad blood in the media even before it lit the silver screen that every world churned out by the film critics was consumed with unmitigated passion by Indians, an almost unprecedented phenomenon in India. The Day of Judgment arrived rather too soon, almost prematurely though, for the much talked about Indian film ’ Bandit Queen’. Shall we ever understand why a teenage girl took to guns? Shall we ever understand why a woman, so violent, got so much support and protection in rural India and made it to Parliament? Shall we ever unravel the mystique of power of illiterate, landless masses in bringing about so profound a change? Phoolan Devi Phenomenon has left an indelible mark on the canvas of rural, north India. Some heads rise in fear, some in awe but no one in indifference. Bandit Queen, who? Each one has heard of Phoolan Devi, indeed. A rich land- owner is driving a tractor in the vicinity too.
This is the Bandit Queen’s country, not far away from where I grew up and witnessed the phenomenon of social change amidst stagnation and inertia.Ī song is rising in the backdrop. These are the ravines in interior Madhya Pradesh where several cults of dacoits are an important element of the folklore.
The murmurs of social equality at New Delhi appear to be from a distant land. The voices of human rights and feminism at The Hague seem light years behind. But the life of Phoolan Devi, as told by Kapur in Bandit Queen, is an apt metaphor for some of the most troubling and inescapable truth about India”. “There may never be a truth that is final, absolute or infallible.