Docudrama that focuses on the underprivileged during India’s lockdown
How cleverly filmmaker Anubhav Sinha mentions ‘from the makers of Mulk and Article 15’ to promote Bheed while Thappad has no mention anywhere since it has nothing to do with any form of political ideologies, for or against. Bheed is a torchlight to the adverse effects of the sudden lockdown announced by our honourable PM in March 2020. Where the entire world was under the threat of Coronavirus, India was dealing with its own divide and rule across domestic borders.
More than a feature theatrical, Bheed is told in a documentary manner where Anubhav brings a two-star cop named Surya Kumar Singh (RajKummar Rao), a doctor, Renu Sharma (Bhumi Pednekar), an affluent mother (Dia Mirza), who is going to pick up her daughter from a hostel, a fearless journalist
Vidhi Prabhakar (Kritika Kamra), a security guard Balram Trivedi (Pankaj Kapur) and Yadav (Ashutosh Rana), a senior cop, who struggles to get an ICU for his Corona affected parents together at a hypothetical check-post of Tezpur district (shot in Lucknow).
Against the backdrop of the nationwide lockdown and its unprecedented consequences, Anubhav brings too many topical issues, casteism being an integral one. Besides this, an obvious rift between the two religions is shown in a safe yet harmonious way. He also touches upon starvation amongst the underprivileged strata of society and how the local authorities dealt with it. The one thing that impresses in the film is Anubhav’s factual and neutral take on the pandemic. In fact, the film ends with multiple slides that read facts, government data etc. However, the love story of RajKummar and Bhumi doesn’t make any sense, they both could have been two different individuals crossing paths with each other. Their intimate scene is a bit too much and highly irrelevant. Can we not follow the stereotypical format of a Hindi film for once? Their banter even in the middle of a big crisis is laughable. How can they plan their marriage amidst all this? Anubhav smartly puts everything into perspective of personal growth and casteism.
Interestingly, all the number plates of the vehicles shown in the film have CR written on them. Even the cop uniforms aren’t clear of their judicial areas. The barricades say ‘Yatayaat Police’ (transportation police) instead of any state police. A muted dialogue between RajKummar to Kritika is annoying. This all seems to be Anubhav’s safety measures or compensation for a U/A certificate.
RajKummar is a great example of talent reinforcement. Bhumi is best suited for ruralbased roles and Bheed is no different. Dia hardly has screen time. Ashutosh is mildly entertaining. Kritika leaves an impact as a passionate news person, who wants to speak about the flaws in the system but hugely supports the phrase Incredible India. Pankaj Kapur shines out in this ensemble. His one scene with RajKummar is the best in the entire film, which sums up the core idea behind Bheed.
Overall, Bheed is sublime in its own way but also holds an underlying controversial viewpoint. After all, the three credits; producer, director and story are under the name of Anubhav Sinha, who is a famous Twitterati too.