Director: Sudipto Sen
Cast: Adah Sharma and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 2 stars
Filmmaker Sudipto Sen’s last offering The Kerala Story did enough wonders to his filmography and established Adah Sharma as a crowd puller. Leaving aside the agenda of the film and keeping a neutral political ideology, The Kerala Story was an interesting watch but sadly, the second attempt of telling the complicated truth of Naxalites and Maoism fails miserably.
IPS Neerja Madhavan (Adah Sharma) is pregnant but is unstoppable. Posted in Bastar, a Naxal-dominant area, she pledges to eradicate the rust and hunt down Lanka Reddy, a Naxal gang leader, but will she succeed?
Director Sudipto handpicks an important subject but looks like he had become to overconfident after tasting the success of The Kerala Story. Undoubtedly, the Hindu-Muslim tussle is the most powerful, debatable and larger issue than the regional conflict confined to domestic borders.
Maoism is undeniably a national issue that is suppressed to the core and Sudipto made his point clear but in a technical manner. Bastar: The Naxal Story is a sloppy docudrama that is away from thrill, adventure and drama. Sudipto dumps his narrative straight into the jungles of Bastar without telling the actual problematic truth.
Sudipto bores to the extent that sitting through 124-minutes is tiresome to even consume the film scene-to-scene. His film is strictly not meant for the layman, however, it’s a good show for the intellectuals, scholars, researchers or somewhere for the loyal fanbase of the filmmaker and Adah collectively, who might seek similar treatment as The Kerala Story.
Anubhav Sinha’s Anek was troublesome for the very similar reason -- Sinha just refused to narrate the ground reality of Northeast India. Sudipto forcibly takes everything to tackle and deals with the sensitive matters, but the 'why' and 'how' are missing. Prakash Jha’s 2012 film Chakravyuh still passes as a decent take to date on the never-ending dispute.
Bastar: The Naxal Story is a taxing watch, so much so that Adah’s commanding act also didn’t work in the film’s favour. Although, Adah is the ruling force of the film but don’t expect a well-made film from the same team.
Leftists still might feel it is a propaganda film but trust me, it is a poor film in totality.
