Bhoomi (2017)

Absolutely Fantastic

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Regarding "Bhoomi" , I first thought to write about the movie , but Sanjay Dutt has overpowered me. The lion,the star,the actor is back and what a performance. His larger than life aura has magnified and the actor in him is back with the same conviction. Baba is outstanding , the style,the charisma is now on the screens again to make you go into the same hysteria.Rape is disturbing and I hope the filmmakers should be sensible in portraying it on screen. This year movies like " Kaabil" and "Mom" have handled it very sensibly but here we see the execution going clichéd and stereotypic. There is no wrong in presenting things in raw and brutal way but a few things should better be presented in a subtle manner rather than screaming loud. The agony and pain should be made understood and felt rather than showing it. The movie hits hard on few issues but overall the treatment is the same old and to some extent does not match the way bollywood is evolving. Aditi is good, Shekhar Suman is fine but Sharad Kelkar as the stereotypical villain of the 80s is too loud and overdramatic. Sanjay Dutt however rises above the script and keeps you engrossed throughout.Watch it for Dutt!!

There's a scene towards the end where a person falls in a stepwell and drowns. The person is unable to bob and bring himself up because the surface of the water is covered with long pieces of cloth. It is just one of the many things that director Omung Kumar gets wrong in his third feature film, Bhoomi, a flawed revenge drama that is a collection of all revenge dramas that we have seen in Bollywood this year so far.The first five seconds are enough to gauge what the film has in store for us, which uses a tried-and-tested formula to drive the hackneyed story ahead. In his first film post the completion of his incarceration, Sanjay Dutt tries to exonerate himself by playing, rather decently, a protecting father figure. He is Arun, a footwear dealer, who finds his world turned upside down after his daughter Bhoomi (Aditi Rao Hydari) is gang-raped on the eve of her wedding. Unable to share his sadness over her motherless daughter's fateful plight and the anger over police apathy and insensitivity, shortcomings of the judicial system, and helplessness as an ordinary man, Arun tries to go the vengeance route and takes the law into his own hands.It all sounds great on paper, but when Kumar, with writer Raaj Shaandilyaa, project it on screen, it does not look exactly convincing. Plagued by homegrown and narrow generality that "all men are dogs" is introduced right in the beginning. A lustful loverboy enjoys gulping down a leftover piece of food previously tasted by Bhoomi because it gives him the gratification of having touched the same item that once touched the lips of the woman that he failed to court. The expansion of this arc is what the rest of the film is about, which is all right as far as cinema is concerned. What is not right is a lack of characters that are neutral. Every man in the film is either a rapist (or a lustful guy who does not mind opening his fly in front of any woman) or Bhoomi's relative.There are more issues in this film than there are good bits. For starters, some of the songs are totally unnecessary and unbelievably timed. A father is crying his heart out because he couldn't protect his daughter, and in the next scene, Sunny Leone wants me to feel trippy. Who prepared the demographic data for the makers? The police, that are inconsiderate at first, suddenly seem to be helping, or even abetting, Arun in his self-righteous deed that is later described as a universal solution (for the issue) by the same character in the epilogue. The villains look intelligent at first but then lose control of their own sanity and do dumb things. They are epitomes of banality that make the whole drama look unnecessary and a waste of time. We all know that courtroom sequences in Bollywood films are a joke, and this one here uses those same films as inspiration. The question about this film's existence, therefore, has to definitely come up.This is a serious and violent film which does slip into lame territory a few times, thanks to Shekhar Suman. Although he puts up a good show after being away from the screen for years, the humor is hardly entertaining. I could say the same thing about Dutt's acting. He looks tired and carries the same weary air throughout the film. Hydari is lovely, but I couldn't connect with her character in the second half. A deadpan look is not the only facial expression in the dictionary of a person who has seen and been through ghastly things. Sharad Kelkar is the new Ronit Roy, and he does his part very well, compelling us to rejoice at his fate later in the film.The final 30 minutes are a relief because the techniques used to exact revenge have the potential to keep you engaged. Arun is an ordinary man but his actions are extraordinary, thanks to writer Shaandilyaa for producing these few bits that are at least entertaining if not logical. The camera work is generally humdrum but there is one sequence around halfway where the film succeeds in capturing the misery of a man who is realizing that that moment is the point where his life is going to change forever.Even though it has all the right ingredients and is supported by a talented cast, there are still issues that mar the film from being a valid entertainer. It tries to raise one too many questions and stumbles over at the first answer itself. There is also no hint about what the director wanted to convey. This again reinforces my statement about Dutt's exoneration, which would then make this a propaganda film, a case I do not wish to pursue.If revenge dramas are the only type of films that you watch, then Bhoomi is going to be a treat. Otherwise, let me stop you from exposing yourself to 140 minutes of cliché, traditional writing, and a preachy and droll climax. You won't miss out on anything because you have already watched Kaabil or Mom or Maatr.

This a 70s style worn-out rape and revenge film, reeking of staleness. Under the guise of striking a blow for feminism, Bhoomi is, mostly, disturbingly voyeuristic. Yes, a father (Dutt) has every right to rage over the rape of his daughter (Hydari). Yes, he can plot violent revenge. And yes, the film does pay lip service to the notion that a girl, after being violated, has every right to let live 'with her head held high'.

Omung Kumar who made the impressive Mary Kom and the patchy Sarbjit comes back with the serious subject of rape with Bhoomi. It is also Sanjay Dutt's comeback movie.On the eve of her wedding, Bhoomi is raped by a spurned suitor and his gangster friends. Her fiancé abandons her and her fight for justice leads to her humiliation in court. Disgusted by this, her father and she withdraw the court case and try to go back to a normal life but are unable to thanks to the constant taunts by society. Finally, the father daughter duo decides to take matters into their own hands and mete out justice in the way they deem fit.Rape is a subject which needs to be dealt with carefully. The story must be hard hitting for the message to reach all audiences but it must do so with empathy and a sensitivity that should make our blood boil and heart ache without resorting to melodrama.Bhoomi has its heart in the right place but the movie gets weighed down under the twin burdens of clichés and melodrama.The court scenes use all the words that make you see red- the female lawyer who is defending the accused asks her if she was a virgin before the rape and calls her characterless. The goons look cocky and unfazed just like in Pink and the father daughter pair cower and look pathetic.This would have worked better if the dialogues had been stronger instead of sounding so bombastic and seeming like a platform for Sanjay Dutt to perform. You need drama to make an impact but resorting to the same old bag of tricks doesn't quite cut it.There are a couple of songs which are totally unnecessary, especially a pretty disgusting item number post interval. Surely, we need to get rid of these by now and use other means of showing debauchery?The movie is very sluggishly paced. You must realise that when you have four men to dispose of you need time to do it well. You can't waste most of the movie on other stuff and move to the main action in the last part of the movie. By then the audience is bound to lose patience like I did and wait for it to end.The retribution when it comes is also heavily ridden by clichés of Devi Shakti etc. Omang Kumar's expertise in production design comes through very clearly in a few visually beautiful scenes but there isn't enough to lift it out of the banal and mud of emotion in which it seems to be tethered.Aditi Rao Hydari has a delicate look and feel about her which works well for her character. However, she doesn't seem to bring out the strong parts that well, and remains meek and submissive even in the latter half of the movie where she decides to turn the tables and avenge her rape . She also seems to be a mismatch for the Agra milieu. She is the daughter of a shoe shop person living in old Agra and is a beautician. Her clothes are too designer and she looks completely out of place with her very simple looking neighbours. She also inexplicably has a stutter which has been put there I guess only for the purpose of one dialogue in the whole movie.Sanjay Dutt sinks his teeth into this role and seems to relish the melodrama sequences. His rheumy baggy eyes are swimming with tears for most of the movie. It is only towards the end when he gets into the action scenes does he show some spunk. But he is special and he gets plenty of screen time for his fans to appreciate his histrionics.Overall, this movie is too melodramatic, too clichéd and too slow for it to work for me. The dialogues are trite and don't offer anything new and the treatment is very 70s and feels dated. For example, the whole piece about covering her up with a dupatta is so outdated and buys into the same cliché of covering up that it wants to bust.Maybe we as a country need the message hammered into our heads about rape. Today in fact I read about a High court ruling that blamed the victim for her mind set and said since she was used to adventurism and experimentation in sexual encounters she basically brought this on herself. The Court further said the sentences should be suspended so that the accused could get a chance to lead a normal life!I had expected a more nuanced movie from Omung Kumar. However, when we can have such judgements being delivered we perhaps deserve a movie which hits its message on our heads with a sledgehammer. See it if you are a Sanjay Dutt fan and a yearning for an old style drama.