Mamta Kalia

Films
138 :: April-June 2010
THE MAKING OF ‘BAWANDAR’–
A WRITER’S DILEMMA
Sudha Arora
Translated by
Seema Sharma
Often filmmakers and writers are drawn towards stories whose
main protagonists are alive and famous. The lives of martyrs and
dacoits have inspired commercial as well as art film directors.
That is why when I heard that a film was being made on the
life of Bhanwari Devi, a worker of the Women’s Development Programme
in the village of Bhateri in Rajasthan, I was not surprised. This
story had all the requisite sensational ingredients – the ups and
downs in the life of a simple village woman worker from her
child marriage to sexual victimization , social boycott, gang-rape,
the evils of casteism, backing of women workers, legal intricacies,
corrupt police force, vote bank politics, series of demonstrations
for and against her and finally the historic judgement in favour
of the rapists and their release on bail.
To make a feature film on the struggles of a living person
is not only challenging as it invites controversies, but also puts
an additional responsibility on the director to present the characters
in a way which elicits an empathetic response from the audience.
‘Bandit Queen’ made on the life of Phoolan Devi was a sensitive
film despite the controversies and the commercialisation associated
with it. Such was the impact of the film that not only was the
case against Phoolan rescinded; she was even allowed to stand
for elections. The contribution of Shekhar Kapur’s film in her election
victory cannot be underestimated. Even though the comparison
seems far-fetched, Bhanwari Devi does appear as an idealistic version
of Phoolan’s character as she is devoid of any negative aspects
of the latter. Phoolan took law into her own hands and ended
up as a politician. Bhanwari opted for a legal course, but came