The trio of The Kerala Story have come together for another hard-hitting story in the form of ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’. Unlike The Kerala Story, Bastar doesn’t have any wide appealing subject, and hence the scope and potential remains limited. Bastar is more brutal and bold and has many disturbing visuals which viewers will find hard to digest. Bastar had scope for many things to showcase, but fails to execute all of them in a proper and effective manner.
Bastar is based on the real-life incidents of Naxals in Chhattisgarh. The film showcases Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in the Bastar district. IPS Officer Neerja Madhavan along with a tribal woman named Ratna (Indira Tiwari) who has lost her husband, fights against the Naxalite and the system to bring justice to all those helpless people living in tribes.
Adah Sharma gave a fine performance in The Kerala Story. She played the role of a South Indian girl and therefore the accent was not a problem over there and the same thing applies in Bastar. Adah is fabulous in some scenes. She is fierce, bold and brave. Her dialogue delivery is fine. Indira Tiwari is a perfect fit for her role. The story mostly revolves around her and she gives a great performance. Raima Sen gets the perfect role, which is somewhat similar to what we saw in The Vaccine War. Raima perfectly carries the attitude and shines. It was good to see actors like Shilpa Shukla and Yashpal Sharma back on-screen, but they do not get any powerful characters. The remaining cast is decent.
The production value of Bastar is very low. The framework looks cheap in some scenes and gives the vibe of an OTT film. The majority of the film is shot in the jungle. The entire making process was wrapped up in 4 months and it looked like makers rushed things unnecessarily and wanted to release the film before the elections. The packaging of the product would have been effective if the makers would have cared to spend more time on post-production work.
The direction of Sudipto Sen is ordinary. He does not try to bring anything different. Though the topic is timeless, the film-making seems to be a little outdated. If this film was made 10 to 15 years ago with the same vision, it might have worked. Sudipto was lucky with The Kerala Story, but luck won’t favor him this time.
The propaganda thing only works once. As we have seen Vivek Agnihotri failing with The Vaccine War after delivering an unexpected blockbuster like The Kashmir Files, the same way the makers of Bastar will fail after delivering an Incidental blockbuster like The Kerala Story. Bastar doesn’t have anything extraordinary in which the audience will invest their time.
The makers have tried to keep things very realistic in Bastar. The pain and suffering of those helpless people is felt. The shocking and disturbing visuals are very difficult to witness. The events happening with those people are heart wrenching. The makers try to showcase only a certain part of what is happening and do not explore the subject as a whole. The film gives a documentary vibe in between.
The writing of Bastar is average and could have been sensational, if it would have been a two way affair. The screenplay is extremely fast paced. The film does not feel dull anywhere and keeps you engaged, but that doesn’t do any better to the quality of the product. Some of the dialogues of Bastar are hard-hitting and will make us shatter from inside. The writers have added some unnecessary melodramatic scenes to bring emotions, but they do not fit properly.
The yellow color grading used in the film is very irritating. The makers intended to give the audience a different feel, but it doesn’t work on the big screen, in fact it looks dull and irritating.
The makers have tried to showcase things and events which are happening in certain sections of India, which we are unaware of. We got Independence in 1947, but some parts of India are still finding it hard and struggling to lead a normal life. We have often seen what happens in Kashmir, but this time let’s have a look at the atrocities done by Naxalite. No Bollywood film has showcased the detailing of atrocities, like the makers of Bastar did and salute to them for having the guts to present something like this.
Overall, Bastar is a strictly average film which fails to shine because of the limited vision. Just by adding brutality and boldness, the quality doesn’t change and makers should have been able to understand this. Bastar can be watched once it is released on OTT, but it doesn’t offer anything for a big screen viewing.
Rating – 2.5*
