Hindi movies commonly portray a man who is trying to fight for his rights within an unjust system. This is the same storyline of Dedh Bigha Zameen.
Written and directed by Pulkit and streaming on JioCinema, the film supports a common man who faces his circumstances, law and politics using a brazen misuse of power. The ways in which it does this are so underplayed that there is little evidence of the anger and disappointment implicit in such a character.
In Dedh Bigha Zameen, there is only a fine line between being subdued or dull. The hurdles facing the main character seem insurmountable yet he carries on tenaciously. Sure he fights well but the movie isn’t up to standard.
But still, the story stands out due to its restraint although it hardly says anything new at all. The culprits here are no longer old fashioned greedy zamindars or moneylenders but dowry seeker, dishonest broker and influential land-grabber.
Dedh Bigha Zameen uses an overused plot to highlight how far one can go when they cannot bear more even though they realize that they have absolute no power.
Some parts of Dedh Bigha Zameen are okay because of what Pratik Gandhi has done with it. He creates a believable picture of someone fighting against overwhelming odds using subtle means. He really stands out in what would have been another formulaic film retelling an oft-told narrative.
The film gets its point across alright but fails to leave much impact on viewers who do not get angry about how things turn out for this hero
Even though certain parts feel like we are suffering alongside him, it never actually springs into life as was expected from Dedh Bigha Zameen either. His struggles come off as real and relatable but we have seen these obstacles before: poverty; the wedding of a sister, a piece of land that cannot be sold because it has been claimed by some other party, in this case an influential small-time politician, as well as his fear of letting down his family. This means that his advancement or lack thereof is not surprising.
Anil Singh (Pratik Gandhi) is a wheat seller who lives with his mother and wife Pooja (Khushalii Kumar), and sister Neha (Prasanna Bisht). Trouble starts when he finds a match for Neha and decides to sell off a small plot so as to meet the expenses.
Anil employs a local broker to dispose off the land. However, he comes across an MLA who has occupied the spot. The marriage may now be in jeopardy if Anil cannot pressurize this lawmaker into vacating the land. Therefore, he has to engage in an unequal battle against this immovable opponent who is least likely to yield unless forced by circumstances.
The weak Anil is the protagonist of the story. He is positive that he can see the busy legislator and appeal to his better side. When he realizes that chances of getting control over his land are fading, he decides to go all out. To his wife, he says “I may be a face in the crowd that counts for nothing but I will fight.”
Mute observers surround Anil. While his sister in law occasionally talks, there is no word from her sister and mother regarding his decisions. The character of Anil himself is as meek as a lamb, even when cornered and has nothing left with him, he maintains his composure. His faith in law is intact and property papers on hand keep him going. However, each step he takes leads to disappointment.
As we noted earlier, Dedh Bigha Zameen isn’t your usual good-bad film type play. The hero does not have an overarching villain to contend with Evil here exists in various forms; it is pervasive and deep-rooted although mostly it carries itself in minute poisonous doses of malice that have virtually destroyed lives of generations who were forced by their circumstances into thinking they must make their peace with influence class people for them to survive.
To everyone except Anil’s family the outcome of this David-Goliath clash was predictable beforehand. They live on hope because some rests on police officers’ hands as per the expectations made by society towards them as enforcers of law but which sometimes lacks interest for protecting people like Anil itself as revealed through Inspector Sunil Yadav (Faisal Malik) who listens twice before doing anything concerning Anil’s case.
A caring uncle (Daya Shankar Pandey) and best friend Asif (Avinash Chandra) try everything possible to help Anil overcome the crisis but it never seems enough at any given time. He faces challenges whose solutions are not easy at all. There are moments when he breaks the law himself, but his aggression normally bounces back unless it is against men who are his size and therefore not more resigned to their fate than he is.
This tells you how depressing the place where this guy lives in. The screenplay has nothing much that would really bring the setting alive or create situations capable of making Anil’s struggle warranted for long attention.
One thing that Dedh Bigha Zameen does do is avoid any false hope or a heroic escapade, an option that might appear as a deviation from the genre’s defining conventions, though parts of the 100-minute film often sink into tedium due to lack of significant tonal variation.
Hardly anyone else in this movie except Pratik Gandhi and that’s no bad thing at all which means Dedh Bigha Zameen director should have given these supporting actors more roles.
The way Dedh Bigha Zameen ends may be disquieting if not surprising But that is about it There isn’t anything else in the film that resembles anything other than dull and ordinary things at all.
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