Saffron Magicworks’ Bandar (A) is the story of Samar Mehra (Bobby Deol) who is arrested on rape charges.
Samar Mehra (Bobby Deol) is a singer and actor. One day, he is suddenly summoned to the police station and arrested for raping his ex-girlfriend, Gayatri (Sapna Pabbi). No amount of pleading helps because all his rantings that Gayatri was crazy fall on deaf ears. He is put in prison. What seems to be a case of incarceration for a few days stretches to weeks, months and more. Gayatri’s lawyer presents new evidence to the court every single time in a bid to nail Samar. On his part, Samar’s lawyer (Riddhi Sen) is unable to convince the judge for his client’s bail because Samar is not very forthcoming about what had transpired between him and Gayatri. All Samar tells his lawyer is that he had had consensual sex with Gayatri, and that she was doing up the interiors of his house. What happens thereafter? The drama focuses on the under-trials in the prison.
Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee’s story starts off well but, after some time, it degenerates into a reality show of life in prison. The duo’s screenplay concentrates too heavily on life in a prison instead of the mental turmoil of Samar Mehra. The scenes of the prisoners in jail are often so terribly realistic that they repulse the audience. It would be very few people’s idea of entertainment to see sweaty and unclean undertrials defecating in filthy and half-open toilets in the jail or catching cockroaches or sleeping in rooms which can actually take one-fourth the number of persons there actually are! After a point, the drama becomes so depressing that many among the viewers would switch off! The duo’s dialogues are realistic.
Bobby Deol delivers a supremely mature performance and lives the character of Samar Mehra. The scene of his first emotional breakdown in jail is terrific. Sanya Malhotra is lovely as Samar’s sister, Suhani. Indrajit Sukumaran is very good as Lijo. Saba Azad acts naturally in the role of Khushi. Jitendra Joshi is simply outstanding as police inspector Deore. This man is a born actor! Nagesh Bhonsle is first-rate as Papa Jacob. Sapna Pabbi makes her mark as Gayatri. Riddhi Sen leaves a fine impression as Samar Mehra’s lawyer. Raj B. Shetty performs well as Lizard man 1. Natesh Hegde is good as Lizard man 2. Sukant Goel impresses as Aatish. Ankush Gedam has his moments as Bilaal. Santosh Juvekar (as Hemant), Durgesh Kumar (as the jail inmate), Navneet Ranga (as Prasad), Ghanshyam Garg, Sanjay Gandhi (as Desai), Jaimini Pathak, Harish Kulkarni (as the old cop), Sagar Yadav (as the cop), Vaishnavi Ratna Prashant (as the lady cop), Anand Vikas Potdukhe (as the cop driver), Ambadas Kulthe (as the front desk cop), Aamir Aziz (as Guddu), Roheb Akhtar (as Chhotu), Agu Stanley Chiedozie (as Mellow), Shane Gregoire (as Shane), Aurobindo Bhattacharjee (as Gayatri’s lawyer), Uday Tikekar (as the judge), Nikhat Khan (as Samar Mehra’s mother), Prithvi Zutshi (as Samar Mehra’s father), Vijay Gupta (as the senile old man), Thomas Jacob (as Vitthal), Sanjeev Kumar Patil (as the superintendent), and the others do as desired.
Anurag Kashyap’s direction is of the kind which tries to impress people with the authenticity card. Kashyap fails to understand once again that making a film for the general masses is not one bit the same as making it for the festival audience. Many of the authentic scenes of the undertrials languishing in jail are so repulsive that the viewers get completely and totally put off. His narrative style is not at all appropriate for the commercial film that this is designed as. Music (Amit Trivedi, Vishal Mishra, Ajit Singh, Sapan Jagmohan, Payal Dev-Aditya Dev, Sickflip, Blurface and Shivahari Varma) is very good. ‘Come on baby’ and Pinjra are very tuneful numbers. Lyrics (Sudip Sharma, Shashwat Dwivedi, Prem Jallandari, MC Maharya, MC Mawali and 100RBH) are good. Bosco-Caesar’s choreography in the Pinjra song is extraordinary and natural to the core. Shivahari Varma’s background music is effective and creates the correct atmosphere. Shaaz Rizvi’s camerawork is good. Paramjeet Singh Pamma and Amrit Singh’s action and stunt scenes are realistic. Prashant Bidkar’s production designing, and Vivek R. Kerkar’s art direction are of a fine standard. Aarti Bajaj’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Bandar is very realistic but it is not engaging or entertaining. Despite a good beginning (initial part of the film), the film will face rejection at the box-office because it lacks commercial ingredients and has an overdose of festival cinema ingredients.
Released on 5-6-’26 at Sterling (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Zee Studios. Publicity: fair. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.