When it comes to acting, Manoj Bajpayee is an acting legend. He is one of the most versatile actors in our country. Manoj Bajpayee has played different roles over the decades like police officer, army officer, soldier, dacoit, gangster, spy, IB officer, traffic inspector, politician, etc. He has played many complex and serious roles over the years, and has nailed each and every role with ease. He delivers another strong performance as a lawyer in ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’. Manoj Bajpayee has played the role of a lawyer for the 1st time in his career and has delivered a powerful performance. Manoj Bajpayee hardly disappoints whenever he acts on-screen. He is the one man show in this courtroom drama.
Bandaa is inspired from true events. The film tells the story of a minor girl who is sexually abused by a Baba. Helpless and hopeless family seek the help of Advocate PC Solanki (Manoj Bajpayee) to fight their case. What obstacles will Solanki face? How will he overcome all the odds? What arguments will he present in the court to emerge victorious? What would be the final verdict? To find out all the answers watch ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’.
Bandaa is an important film in our time and has a strong and alerting subject. Instead of making films on controversial subjects in the name of religion, films like Bandaa should be made to make people alert the people who are ruining our society and taking advantage of people in the name of religion. Bandaa has a strong subject exposing the so-called BABA who take advantage of people in the name of religion. These people rape many young girls and do such filthy acts on the name of god and religion. Bandaa is an important film to make people aware and bring to the people’s notice who worship such double faced Baba’s and have blind faith in them.
Bandaa scores in performances (mainly driven by ManoJ Bajpayee) and subject but lacks in several departments. Bandaa has some flaws and some mistakes which can’t be overlooked. The film had a huge scope of turning out to be a memorable film and a Classic looking at the subject but some errors make it a decent watch. The opposition lawyer should have been some strong guy and the courtroom battle would have been much more effective. Vipin Sharma has done a decent job but the writing doesn’t give him much scope. In a courtroom drama, the first few hearings are won by the opposing lawyer and then we see a comeback of our lawyer, this is a normal protocol for each and every courtroom drama. In Bandaa, we see our hero Manoj Bajpayee winning each and every argument against the opposition lawyer which kills the excitement. The writers should have kept a note of this point, they got the basics wrong. The criminal, Baba could have been shown in a much powerful way. Behind the scenes whatever he orders his goons to perform could have been executed better. There are many scenes which lose connection and don’t look that better on-screen.
Talking about the performances, Manoj Bajpayee carries the whole film on his shoulder. He is a one man show and is Kaafi to make you watch the film. Manoj Bajpayee perfectly fits in the role and gets completely into the character. He has killed it in the climax with a superb closing statement. Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha plays the role of Baba (Asaram Bapu) and looks perfectly like one. The rest of the cast is decent.
The direction of Apoorv Singh Karki is not kaafi satisfying. The powerful execution is definitely missing here which stops the film from being a Classic. Any other greater director who knows the subject well would have delivered a memorable film for sure.
The writing and editing could have been better. Some scenes could have been easily trimmed which didn’t fit much in the narrative. The writing lacked a powerful punch like some of the courtroom dramas like OMG, Pink, Jolly LLB series, Damini, Meri Jung, Section 375 etc. The argument scenes are well written but could have gone a level higher.
Singham 2 also had exposed the Baba thing but it had an out and out commercial touch to it. The Hollywood Masterpiece and Oscar winning Spotlight was a sensational film on this subject. The film was based on true incidents where priests of the Catholic church are being accused of molesting small children. These priests used to rape small children (both boys and girls) on the name of religion. They used to molest them by telling them that it is a ritual in our religion. Many people won’t believe that these priests who act as a messenger of gods can do such filthy acts. Spotlight was a bold and hard hitting masterpiece which exposed these filthy acts done in the name of religion.
Bandaa has a low production value and that’s the reason it was meant for an OTT release. There are many courtroom dramas produced in Bollywood which have a higher production value. The courts created in those films and other scenes are shot at a higher value and look good on-screen. You can overlook the low scenic treatment given as Bandaa focuses on content more than all these things.
Bandaa should be watched once for its hard hitting subject and Manoj Bajpayee’s blistering act. The film acts as an eye opener and saves us from the misleading acts done in the name of religion. This is definitely a very important film and is very relevant in today’s time. Hollywood has Spotlight and no film would be able to match that, but we have Bandaa in Bollywood which deals on a similar topic but in a less impactful way.
Rating – 3/5*
Watch the trailer below:
