Taapsee Pannu in ‘Gandhari’
| Photo Credit: Netflix
Mardaani meets Mom in a mythical framework as Taapsee Pannu joins hands with writer-producer Kanika Dhillon to open a new pulpy chapter after Haseen Dillruba. Invoking the divine wrath of the Devi to anchor a meaningful action-thriller, Gandhari attempts to subvert the typical Bollywood revenge trope, but it ends up more intellectually burdened than artistically elevated.Set in the fictional town of Joypurra, the narrative traces a mother’s harrowing journey after her young daughter is abducted from a crowded railway station. Left temporarily blind after a brutal attack, Bani (Taapsee) transforms into a force of vengeance against a sinister child-trafficking ring.Kanika draws from the Mahabharata for the title and from Dominique Lapierre’s City of Joy to name a hotbed of child exploitation in a Bengal suburb, Joypurra, to mock the hollow promises of development and safety. It is a town infested by an underground maze of tunnels and populated by face-changing folk artists called behrupiyas, functioning as a thriving, invisible transit point for child traffickers.Gandhari (Hindi)Director: Devashish MakhijaDuration: 115 minutesCast: Tapsee Pannu, Ishwak Singh, Mita Vashisht, Chhaya Kadam, Jatin Sarna, Prashant NarayananSynopsis: Bani refuses to stay helpless when she loses her eyesight in a brutal attack after her young daughter is stolen at a railway station and takes on a child trafficking gang.The film tries to bring together director Devashish Makhija’s realistic, socio-political minimalism and Kanika’s commercial feminist template. However, as it turns out, it is bereft of tonal identity. Instead of finding a middle ground, Gandhari feels like a movie where the director and the writer are fighting for control of the steering wheel.
