Bheed movie review: Anubhav Sinha paints grim harshness of lockdown and inequalities in black and white

Bheed

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Kapur, Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Ashutosh Rana, Aditya Shrivastava, Virendra Saxena, and Kritika Kamra.

Where to watch: Theatres

Rating: 3.5 stars

Bheed isn’t as much a film as it is cross-sectional chronicle of 21^st century India from one of its worst phases. The Anubhav Sinha film deals with the first few days of the very first lockdown enforced in 2020 in the early days of Covid-19 in India. While the affluent were in their homes watching reruns of Doordarshan classics, millions were on the road with one aim – getting home. Bheed is the story of those people.

The film largely takes place in Tejpur, a village situated on a state border some 1200 km from Delhi where a police check post is being manned by Surya Kumar Singh (Rajkummar Rao) and hundreds are trying to cross over to get home. This includes an anxious mother (Dia Mirza) eager to get to her teenage daughter, a bus full of migrants led by a watchman (Pankaj Kapur), and many others. Surya has to balance their demands with the pressures from his senior (Ashutosh Rana) and over-eagerness of his colleague Ram Singh (Aditya Shrivastava). A side plot sees him contend with his place in the society as a so-called ‘lower caste’, particularly since he is in love with a girl from another caste – a medical student played by Bhumi Pednekar.

The first thing you notice about Bheed is the monochrome picture. That works because you immediately go to the actors’ faces and the light and dark, instead of being dazzled by 2000 colours. It firmly establishes the film in reality. And that is what sets it apart from the countless films made on the pandemic and lockdowns so far. Bheed seems real. Watching it takes you back to those harsh days in March 2020 and suddenly you aren’t watching characters on a big screen but real breathing people with real pains and tears.

The brevity of the film works in its favour. The 110-minute runtime allows the arc to conclude in time without any story meandering on. Despite the short runtime, each character gets a chance to shine with director Sinha giving the actors a lot of room to play with. Every character – save for Surya – has various shades of grey in them. Nobody is a stereotype. The watchman is as much a bigot as he is a hapless father. The desperate mother is classist by nature but she just doesn’t know it. They are written like real people.

The cinematography, background score, and the gaze is meant to make you uncomfortable. For these were uncomfortable times. At times, Bheed gets difficult to watch as you see calluses on the feet of the migrant workers walking home. But that setting of the stage is necessary. Yet, there are shortcomings too. There are times when the film gets into the sermonising mode and hammers its point home but thankfully those are few and far in between. The writing, particularly the dialogue, is top notch with some lines forcing you to sit up and take notice.

Rajkummar Rao is at the front and centre of the film, acting as the story’s moral compass. The actor is in fine form and brings to the fore his character’s ambitions, insecurities, and righteousness beautifully. Pankaj Kapur is the perfect foil to him in a strong author-backed role, which he has made his own. The veteran actor shows just why he is one of the finest we have had over the course of the film time and again. The other star of the show is Ashutosh Rana, who oscillates so wonderfully between a dutiful son worried about his ailing parents and a ruthless cop. Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Kritika Kamra, Aditya Shrivastava, and Virendra Saxena all get moments to shine and show their mettle.

Do not go to watch Bheed for entertainment. It is not supposed to entertain you. It is not even supposed to shock or disgust you. It makes you wonder though, about how short-lived human memory is. These are incidents from amidst us from just three years. And yet, in an era with the highest documentation of all that is happening around is, these tragedies stand forgotten. That is the biggest victory of Bheed. It manages to bring back the grim harshness of the lockdowns for the people it affected the most. For a change, the entire focus is on the ones who were fighting for their lives.