Benaras Mediaworks’ Bheed (UA) is a film which talks about what happened to migrant workers when they set out to return to their homes from Bombay during the first Coronavirus lockdown in 2020. In that sense, it is inspired by a true state of affairs.
Surya Kumar Singh (Rajkumar Rao) is made incharge of the police thana during the first Coronavirus lockdown. Police inspector Yadav (Ashutosh Rana) is his senior. Surya loves Renu Sharma (Bhumi Pednekar) who is also on field duty where Surya is. Migrant workers come in large numbers and are stopped by Surya as he has orders that nobody should be allowed to cross state borders. Balram Trivedi (Pankaj Kapur), a watchman by profession and himself a migrant worker, speaks on behalf of all the migrant workers with him when they are not allowed to move ahead and he sees children crying because of hunger. Driven to frustration , he storms into a nearby mall to collect food items but by then, inspector Yadav, instigated by police inspector Ram Singh (Aditya Srivastava), decides to gun down Trivedi. However, Surya asks him for just one opportunity to set matters right. What happens thereafter?
Anubhav Sinha has written a story inspired by reported happenings about migrant workers and their families walking for miles together to reach home. While the story has its heart in the right place, it is stretched a great deal so that it begins to bore after a point of time. The screenplay, penned by Anubhav Sinha, Saumya Tiwari and Sonali Jain, has its share of weaknesses. For one, because of the thin story-line, the screenplay is repetitive and less impactful than it ought to have been. Secondly, although it is a human drama, it doesn’t shake the viewers or move them to tears. Thirdly, the happenings are so recent and have been seen (on television news channels) and read about so many times by the public that not many among the potential audience would want to relive the dark days of lockdown and the horrific happenings of those days. A glaring defect of the screenplay is when, in the climax, Balram Trivedi and Surya come out of the food store in the mall. What follows thereafter makes the viewers wonder what happened to the food items Trivedi had gone to fetch from the mall. Further on, when Surya asks Trivedi to do something and the latter refuses, it makes the audience wonder, what the two had planned inside the store! All in all, the climax is not at all convincing. The trio’s dialogues are fairly good but some of them are fantastic.
Rajkumar Rao gives his all to the role of Surya Kumar Singh. He is extremely natural and makes a fine impact with his performance. Bhumi Pednekar makes the character of Renu Sharma believable and endearing with her excellent acting. Pankaj Kapur is outstanding in the role of Balram Trivedi. He is especially mind-blowing in the emotional scenes. Ashutosh Rana shines as police inspector Yadav. He conveys a lot in limited words. Dia Mirza leaves a mark as Geetanjali. Virendra Saxena is lovely as Dubey. Aditya Srivastava makes his presence amply felt as police inspector Ram Singh. Kritika Kamra provides fine support as Vidhi Prabhakar. Karan Pandit is good as Raghu. Aditi Subedi is very realistic in the role of Gudiya. Yogesh Pandey makes his presence amply felt as Pushpesh Singh, the high-handed brother of the minister, who wants to cross the border. Sushil Pandey makes a lovely impact as Geetanjali’s driver, Kanhaiya. Onkardas Manikpuri has his moments. Others lend natural support.
Anubhav Sinha’s direction is good but not consistently so. There are scenes which show his brilliance but there are others which are found lacking. The film has been shot in B & W to no great advantage. Anurag Saikia’s music is haunting and goes with the mood of the film. Lyrics (Shakeel Azmi and Dr. Sagar) are appropriate. Mangesh Dhakde’s background music could’ve been better. Soumik Mukherjee’s cinematography is very nice. Action and stunt scenes (by Riyaz and Habib) are quite realistic. Nikhil Kovale’s production designing is of a fine standard. Atanu Mukherjee’s editing is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Bheed will not attract any sizeable crowds to the cinemas because it is neither hard-hitting nor shocking, which is what such films ought to be.
Released on 24-3-’23 at Inox (daily 3 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.