Bandit Queen (1994)

Director:

Shekhar Kapur

Writers:

Ranjit Kapoor (dialogue)
Mala Sen (book)
(more)

Release Date:

30 June 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

She was the most feared outlaw in India. If the story wasn't true you wouldn't believe it...

Plot:

The movie tells the story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994...

Plot Keywords:

Bandit | Human Rights | Dehydration | Feminist | Outlaw

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Seema Biswas	...	Phoolan Devi
Aditya Srivastava	...	Puttilal
Agesh Markam	...	Mad Woman
Ajai Rohilla	...	Behmai Man
Anirudh Agarwal	...	Babu Gujjar
Anil Sahu	...	Vikram Gang Member
Anupam Shyam	...	Ganshyam
Aseem Bajaj	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Ashok Bulani	...	D.S.P
Ashok Sharma	...	Ashokchand Servant
Avinash Nemade	...	Doctor
Basant Rawat	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Chotelal Siraswal	...	Vikram Gang Member
Deepak Chibber	...	S.P. Bhind
Deepak Soni	...	Miandad
Dhawal Gwaliori	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Dilip Raghuvanshi	...	Commander Yadav
Gajraj Rao	...	Ashokchand
G.B. Dixit	...	Ala Singer
Girish Solanki	...	Tarika's Partner
Govind Namdeo	...	SriRam
Guddi	...	Munni
Gyan Shivpuri	...	Phool Singh
Harish	...	Tarika
Hemant Mishra	...	Policeman
Hemant Pandey	...	Ashokchand's Friend
Jeetendra Shastri	...	Bharat
Kamia Bhatt	...	Rukhmani, age 11
K.D. Segan	...	A.D.C
Khunni Lal Maina	...	Pundit
Lakshmi	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang (as Lakshmi Narayan)
Mahesh Chandra	...	Chief Minister
Malabai Sonwani	...	Mother-in-law
Mandakini Goswami	...	Kailash's Wife
Manoj Bajpayee	...	Man Singh (as Manoj Bajpai)
Nazim Hussain	...	Vikram Gang Member
Nazim Patel	...	Vikram Gang Member
Nirmal Pandey	...	Vikram Mallah
Pallavi Bharti	...	Little Girl
Paritosh Sand	...	Devendra Singh
Pawan Gupta	...	Vikram Gang Member
Pradeep Gupta	...	Vikram Gang Member
Puran Bhatt	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Raghuvir Yadav	...	Madho
Rajesh Vivek	...	Mustaquim
Raj Kumar Kamie	...	Thakur Gang
Rakesh Raekwar	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Ram Charan Nirmalker	...	Devideen
Ranjit Chowdhry	...	Shiv Narain (as Ranjit Chaudhry)
Ravi Sangde	...	Messenger
Sanjeev Kumar	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang
Saurabh Shukla	...	Kailash
Savitri Raekwar	...	Moola
Sitaram Panchal	...	Lalaram
Sunil Gaekwad	...	Rattan Chand
Sunita Bhatt	...	Little Phoolan
Surendra Kora	...	Behmai Man
Uma Yaish	...	Rukhmani
Vibanshu Vaibhav	...	Vikram Gang Member
Vijay Shukla	...	Ashokchand's Friend
Vinod Tiwari	...	Vikram Gang Member
Yogesh Gupta	...	Poolan / Man Singh Gang

Directed by
Shekhar Kapur

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ranjit Kapoor		dialogue
Mala Sen		book "India's Bandit Queen"
Mala Sen		screenplay

Produced by
Bobby Bedi	....	producer
Varsha Bedi	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Roger White

Cinematography by
Ashok Mehta

Film Editing by
Renu Saluja

Casting by
Tigmanshu Dhulia

Production Design by
Eve Mavrakis

Art Direction by
Ashok Bhagat

Costume Design by
Dolly Ahluwalia

Makeup Department
Edwin Williams	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Stephen Barker	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mike Higgins	....	first assistant director
Alok Kapur	....	third assistant director
Rajiv Maikhuri	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Richard King	....	sound re-recording mixer
Dileep Subramanian	....	boom operator
Robert Taylor	....	production sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Aseem Bajaj	....	assistant camera
Mulchand Dedhia	....	gaffer
Vinod Narayanan	....	focus puller
Giles Nuttgens	....	additional photographer

Music Department
M. Arshad	....	musical director

Other crew
Mike Higgins	....	associate director
Pauline Hume	....	title designer
Kannan Iyer	....	assistant to director

Production Companies

• Channel Four Films
• Kaleidoscope Entertainment
• Kaleidoscope Productions

Distributors

• Alta Films (Spain)
• Arrow (1995) (USA) (subtitled)
• Atlantic Film (2010) (Finland) (DVD)
• Front Row Filmed Entertainment (2009) (United Arab Emirates) (all media) (Middle East)
• Homescreen (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Koch Vision (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (video) (VOD)

Other Companies

• Movietech  camera equipment provided by
• Sylvia Wheeler Film Services  negative cutting

Also Known As:

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

India | UK

Language:

Hindi | Assamese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby | Dolby SR

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | India:(Banned) (original rating) | New Zealand:R18 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:R | India:A | Australia:MA (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

India

Company:

Channel Four Films

Trivia:

This was banned by the Indian authorities due to its graphic scenes of sex and violence. It also incurred the wrath of its own subject, Phoolan Devi, who objected to the fact that she hadn't been invited to see the film. Devi claimed it was riddled with inaccuracies.

Quotes:

Puttilal:[Tied to a pole and beaten with rifle-butt] Forgive me.
Phoolan Devi:Forgive you?
Phoolan Devi:Write this to the police.
Vikram Mallah:What?
Phoolan Devi:Any man that marries a little girl... I'll kill him.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Chintu Ji (2009)

A shocking story, and more so because it's true

I saw Bandit Queen in 2005, over a decade after it was made amidst widespread controversy in India. The language, the stark treatment and the natural acting (by a relatively unknown cast for that time) might have been even more shocking at that time for an Indian populace more familiar with fantasy cinema. The film, the cast, and Shekhar Kapoor, deserve accolades for the breakthrough effort.

The plot is not very different from a typical revenge drama made in various forms in India. In fact, there have been several fictional accounts of this particular story itself. The reason why this stands out is that it's supposed to be a first person account of someone who actually went through all this, and a lot else that doesn't find place on the screen, and survived to tell the tale. Survived long enough to see her story made into a movie at least. Phoolan Devi didn't live very long after being released from prison in 1994.

The film scores on several counts. The cinematography is brilliant. The music is apt. The cast, many of whom became more familiar names later, is very good. But the screenplay is patchy. Things move too fast and in jerks at times. It's understandable though, because there are just too many strands that need to be tied together to make it all cohesive. Or maybe I felt that because I have read Mala Sen's book, which is a more detailed and better, though obviously not as shocking as the visual, account of Phoolan Devi's travails, and which is purported to be one of the main sources for the film.

There are some factual ambiguities too. According to Phoolan Devi, she wasn't present when the Behmai massacre took place, and despite claiming to be the dictated account of Phoolan herself, she is shown to participate, and in fact initiate, the massacre. Then the final scene where Phoolan surrenders shows her touching the feet of the Chief Minister, while in reality she had surrendered to a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. Symbolic value only, but shows that Phoolan didn't want to show servitude to a living, ordinary person. It would have been nice to show the Chief Minister to have some resemblance to Arjun Singh, who many remember was the CM of Madhya Pradesh then.

But these are small chinks in this eminently well-made movie, a rare gem to come out from the mainstream Indian film industry, made by a man who before this was known best for the ultimate masala movie of the late 80s - Mr India.