Movie Review: Bandit Queen

CHECKLIST Rating: 4/5

Reviewer: I Sungjemla Walling, BA Sociology 6th Semester, Tetso College

It is a remarkable movie about Phoolan Devi a lower caste Indian woman, a female right activist, bandit and politician who was assassinated in September 2001. The movie start at the point where the 11 year-old Phoolan is sold off as a bride to a man in his early 30s who gave her parents a cow and threw in a bicycle. The movie follows by marital rape and abuse that follows divorce, chasing her away, kidnapping her and eventually as an outcast she falls into a life of brigandage.

Living as a bandit among men in a society where women were believed of not being capable of doing such bold things, she is often discriminated by phrases like- “She’s a woman- and Low caste”. But regardless of all this discrimination she fights for the Women’s Right and help the needy and those in injustice.

I personally like this movie as it is an inspiring movie which portrays the strength of will power and how much one can do regardless of what she faced from her early age. If only one is determined and has strong will power, we can achieve our goal no matter what obstacles we face in life. It unveils the bitter indictment of Indian society, the caste system, men’s domination over women, and child marriage. It also divulges the atrocities that one can face in a cruel society.

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