Story: By taking inspiration from true events, this movie deals with the Naxal menace in Chhattisgarh and highlights the extraordinary efforts of a lone police officer who went out of his way to fight against the Naxalites.
Review: In “Bastar: The Naxal Story,” director Sudipto Sen and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah have attempted to bring another issue into limelight. After the success of “The Kerala Story” at the box office, they have decided to take up Naxal insurgency in Chattisgarh as their next subject. Although Bastar manages to engage its audience through most part of it, it could have been made a better watch if they would have delved deeper into political settings or given more attention on this aspect while narrating the tale. Real incidents and characters form basis for portrayal; however, fictional element has also been injected within them by drawing inspiration from different events that took place in our society. While Sen’s script lacks strength at places but compensates with skilful depiction of happenings yet there are few scenes which might be tough for one’s eyes.
Neerja Madhavan (Adah Sharma) is an IPS officer with no-nonsense attitude who holds senior position in CRPF and is tasked to put down Naxalism in Chhattisgarh she becomes central character around which story revolves. Film begins inside courtroom where government representatives are pitted against those belonging to naxals’ camp arguing legally before judge. SPOs (Special Police Officers) along with state sponsored militia Salwa Judum were employed by her for de-radicalising area affected by these left-wing extremists. Parallelly we see another track of Ratna (Indira Tiwari), a tribal woman whose husband was brutally murdered by Lanka Reddy (Vijay Krishna) infamous naxalite leader — seeking revenge, Ratna enrolls herself as SPO and assists Neerja in her mission against them.
The movie features characters based on real people but their names have been changed so it becomes a guessing game for those viewers who know about real events. Authentic locations add to the realistic tone of film while its rawness keeps audience at edge especially during scenes where influential elite are seen giving support to naxals. However there is an important miss here Delhi should have been portrayed as main control centre along with Raipur; therefore in such kind of narrative we need to go behind curtains of these hubs too for showing how things work from there. Although these aspects are touched upon by movie but they just brush through it without going deep into matter. Also, though being nicely shot yet loud background score acts as disturbance sometimes.
Once again Adah Sharma shines in a powerful role like she did in “The Kerala Story”. Playing tough cop this time, her performance comes across as genuine portrayal where she doesn’t hesitate speaking out even if politicians are present around her. Indira Tiwari’s act touches hearts deeply when he plays tribal woman because his acting seems very natural indeed. Vijay Krishna does menace filled Lanka Reddy character which switches between English and Hindi easily while Raima Sen, Shilpa Shukla & Yashpal Sharma fit into their respective characters perfectly well.” ‘Bastar’ is a gritty crime drama that will surely shake you at times!
For More Movies Visit Putlocker.