Powerful

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Based on the true story of a woman who rose from poverty and child abuse to become a respected outlaw and folk hero, 'Bandit Queen' tells a fascinating slice of an Indian history, even if Phoolan Devi herself (whose life is depicted) has disputed the film's accuracy. Set during the 1970s and 1980s, the antiquated values of villages where Devi grew up are striking, with child marriages a norm and women viewed as second class citizens, and the film has much power as a tale of overcoming circumstance. The film is, however, also incredibly slow- moving and while there are some well-handled abuse and torture scenes early on, it is only in the second half of the film that the story really becomes juicy with Devi deciding to fight back and become her own warrior. There is a particularly effective sequence in the final half hour in which the reactions of a baby girl convey all during a massacre. As mentioned though, there is something to be said for the restraint of the film's earlier abuse scenes, none of which are graphic. The swinging of a door open and closed is all that the filmmakers need here to convey the horrors of gang rape and the way the camera stays very much at a distance avoids a scene in which she is stripped turning exploitative. In short, this is a well-made film; sure, a little too slow-moving for its own good, but one hard to erase from the mind afterwards.

'Bandit Queen' was one of Shekhar Kapur's final films before he ventured into Hollywood. Due to its subject matter and very graphic portrayal of rape and humiliation it was considered to be one of the most controversial Indian films and was even banned in the country. The film tells the story of Phoolan Devi in her earlier years (before she became a politician). Even though the film is said to be based on accounts written by Devi, the Bandit Queen herself was disappointed by the film and stated that it was riddled with inaccuracies.Like most of Kapur's movies, the execution is first rate. The raw dry landscape is captured stunningly. It looks beautiful but at the same time very real. The art direction also brings out an authentic earthy quality of the village and its dwellers. The narrative structure and cinematography are solid and the pace is well.The rape scenes are disturbing, especially the gang-rape and the scene that follows where humiliated Phoolan Devi is stripped off her clothing and exploited in the village by her assailants. The sequence provides shock value but not in a gratuitous way.'Bandit Queen' has some remarkable performances. Nirmal Pandey, Saurabh Shukla and Manoj Bajpai are excellent. Govind Namdeo is chilling and hateful in one of his sleaziest roles to date. However, this is Seema Biswas's film. The actress performs all guns blazing in this career defining role. She wonderfully moulds feistiness, vulnerability, anguish, despair and strength in her character. It has me wondering why she hasn't received more of such meaty roles.I can't comment on how much of it is based on what really happened but 'Bandit Queen' is an exceptionally well made film that tells a harrowing story of a crucial figure.

"Bandit Queen" is a controversial and groundbreaking Indian film (co-produced by Great Britain's "Channel Four") telling the real-life story of Phoolan Devi (Seema Biswas, excellent), a low-caste woman given to a husband at age 11 who runs away from him, is constantly violated by upper-caste males, until pairing with a handsome outlaw, Vikram Mallah (Nirmal Pandey), who shows her some respect and invites her to join his gang. Devi became a mythical national figure in her own lifetime (she had just been released from an 11-year prison term when the movie came out, and was murdered in 2001), hailed as "The Bandit Queen" or "Queen of the Ravines". Although at first Devi took legal action to ban the movie's exhibition in India (and it was actually banned for some time - after all, this is no Bollywood fantasy), she eventually changed her mind (plus, Channel Four paid her $60,000...).A lot has been said about the accuracy of everything portrayed on screen ("My life was much harder", Devi would have said after the first time she saw the movie). Just like he would do in 1998's successful "Elizabeth", Shekhar Kapur knows how to turn a larger than life, actual trajectory in a huge spectacle - but still keeping the essence of its core. Truth be told, this is one of those extraordinary sagas that if even half of what's portrayed on screen is real, it's already quite a journey. Kapur might have been a high-caste, city-bred man trying to portray the life of a brave and rebellious low-caste woman fighting for her survival - in a way that no other woman in her time had done, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know or doesn't have the right to try to depict this reality he doesn't directly belong to. How honest Kapur's original intentions were we can't know for sure, but that doesn't undermine his accomplishment here; this is a story that had to be told to a larger international audience. If a movie manages to work both as an adventurous spectacle and a tale of resurgence after national injustice and misfortunes, then it deserves to be seen. 8.5/10.

This movie IS a great movie, because it is well crafted, taut and keeps you glued all the way through to your seat....HORRIFIED. However, it is a very one-sided story. It shows Phoolan to be a wonderful, chaste woman who was always victimized and is in that way a typical bollywood portrayal of a wronged woman who rises from the ashes of her humiliation to wreck vengeance on those that wronged herBesides, I am not entirely convinced about making a movie about a real, living person who has been through hell and is forced to relive it just because a movie director thinks it is a story worth telling. All in all, a typical MASALA movie.