Bandit Queen Details

harrowing, shocking but ultimately hopeful

I saw this a few years ago and it left a lasting impression. Bandit Queen is the true story of Phoolam Devi a village girl from the 'untouchables' caste who is routinely humiliated and assaulted by her 'betters'. Suffering horrific gang rapes and so on, she eventually decides that enough is enough and becomes a ferocious bandit (frankly, it's hard to blame her although her more savage acts are also impossible to condone). Then, in the middle of all this brutality there's a really touching love story too, but with the lovers on the run, even this cannot bring lasting happiness. The film explores her life as a bandit, but this same woman ended up after prison with all charges dropped and she served as an MP until her eventual assassination in 2001. This film is a brilliant, shocking indictment of the status of the untouchables and of women in particular in rural India. It's also an exciting, brilliantly acted action film. See it if you get the chance.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

A womans lot

This really wasn't my cup of tea, probably because it was pretty much rape, rape and more rape. It's a pretty sorry tale of a woman shoved in a variety of different directions, which ultimately sets the path of the rest of her life. I found this film really frustrating, and hard to relate to, the story wasn't really clear and I thought she was there for the ride rather than actually being a 'bandit queen'. The film suggests that this was still happening in India in the late 1980's, again something I found hard to absorb.