The career of the ageing actor and singer Samar (Bobby Deol) has diminished to the point that he seeks company on dating apps. That’s how he met his current girlfriend Khushi (Saba Azad). That’s also how he previously met Gayatri (Sapna Pabbi), to his peril.Spooked by Gayatri’s possessiveness, Samar ghosts Gayatri and then blocks her after she begins to stalk him. A vengeful Gayatri falsely charges Samar with rape. It doesn’t help that Samar has been sleep-walking through the short relationship, and can’t remember the crucial information that might have helped him, as his frustrated sister (Sanya Malhotra) and lawyer (Riddhi Sen) keep reminding him.After being grilled by various cops (Jitendra Joshi, Nagesh Bhonsle and Jaimini Pathak) who are prepared to believe the worst about Bollywood personalities, Samar awaits trial in prison hell. Men are crammed into rooms, all but sleeping on top of each other.Gangs demand loyalty and bribes. Lijo (Indrajith Sukumaran) controls one section of Samar’s cell; Bilal (Ankush Gedam), Aatish (Sukant Goel) the other. Two inmates (Natesh Hegde and Raj B Shetty) target lizards to get their kicks.Anurag Kashyap’s unrelentingly grim and needling Bandar (Monkey) is both a statement on the MeToo movement and a reminder of the terrible conditions in Indian jails. Either aspect could have yielded a separate movie, but are provocatively mashed together.The screenplay by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee draws a connection between the fake rape allegation and Samar’s ordeal. One is directly responsible for the other, per this film’s schema.Sapna Pabbi in Bandar (2026). Courtesy Saffron Magicworks.Bandar stands in the corner of men from the entertainment industry who were possibly framed for predatory behaviour. The film takes a contrarian view on a movement that hasn’t reached the levels of reckoning seen in the West.Since Bandar is based on actual, unspecified case and follows a single character, there is no broader context created around the women who are filing genuine cases and are still awaiting justice. Having set out to undermine MeToo, the film tries to boost its shock value by going further than other films and web series in revealing the nastiness that seethes in Indian jails.Anybody with a distaste for overly realistic prison sets might frequently feel the need to look away from the screen. The excellent production design by Prashant Bidkar and art direction by Vivek Kerkar capture the cramped conditions and degrading filth. The many scenes that keep returning to the toilet area are definitely not for the squeamish.Although Bandar isn’t primarily meant to be a prison drama, that’s what it ends up being. The 136-minute narrative turns itself over to Samar’s plight behind bars, losing proportion, focus and balance in the bargain.The jail scenes are the cinematic version of low-hanging fruit. It’s impossible not to feel for Samar, given his experiences. Bobby Deol admirably depicts the despair and pathos of someone who is out of his depth. Needy and easily led, Samar is pushed to the edge of his sanity by the politics within the jail and the corruption on the outside that keeps him there.There are solid scenes too for Saba Azad, Riddhi Sen, Sanya Malhotra. Indrajith Sukumaran is chilling as the prison overlord Lijo, who makes Samar dance to his tune. Sapna Pabbi effectively plays Gayatri as a social climber and then a monster who becomes the catalyst for an expose on carceral conditions. Go figure.