Review of Adah Sharma’s Bastar The Naxal Story: It’s Mostly Just Shock and Gore
Review of Bastar: The Naxal Story: Sudipto Sen’s Bastar: The Naxal Story, with its dark, brutal, gritty, and violent concept, attempts to expose the visceral chapters of the Naxalite-Maoist conflict in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar area. Although the creators deserve praise for their painstaking portrayal of Bastar’s traumatic upbringing, they blatantly attempt to shift the responsibility elsewhere. And that lessens the dire and sorrowful situation of individuals who have personally observed the carnage. Nevertheless, Bastar: The Naxal Story is a really well-made film; the claimed conspiracies are subtly interwoven with the events and conversation, leaving you rather stunned throughout.
The film opens with a heated courtroom exchange between two attorneys, Yashpal Sharma and Shilpa Shukla, as Neelam Nagpal and Utpal Trivedi, respectively. It’s made clear right away that Shilpa Shukla’s character is accusing IPS Neerja Bhargava (Adah Sharma) of conducting extrajudicial meetings with defenseless tribal people and dragging renowned writer Vanya Roy (Raima Sen) under suspicion of being a third party involved in Naxalite violence. In the meantime, Yashpal Sharma argues on Neerja’s side but is overwhelmed by Shilpa Shukla’s claim.
The action then moves to a small town in Bastar, where some indigenous people are raising the Tricolor. They are attacked by several Naxalites, who take a man called Milind Kashyap (Subrata Dutta) and his wife Ratna (Indira Tiwari) and their two children—a boy and a girl. They are brought to a guerilla camp, where they are placed under the command of Comrade Reddy (Vijay Krishna), a renowned and apparently silver-tongued commander who is joined by another vicious female leader. The actual camp is portrayed as the epicenter of insurrection, equipped with cutting-edge ammo and other vital supplies.
The Naxals label Milind a traitor for flying the Tricolor and working as an informant for IPS Neerja Bhargava in what seems to be an illegitimate trial. And then Milind is brutally and horrifyingly executed by Reddy, who uses an axe to chop off one of his hands before mutilating him in front of his adoring wife and their devastated kid. They take his kid away, who seems to be inspired by one of Reddy’s talks, which only deepens their grief.
Driven by a desire for vengeance, Ratna, the spouse of Milind, becomes inspired by Neerja Bhargava and resolves to eliminate the ruthless assassins of her spouse. And then starts the bloody battle, not only between the military and the Naxals but also some proxies who are allegedly working with the extremist organization.
Bastar: The Naxal Story attempts to walk the tightrope between fact and fiction, but ultimately becomes a patchwork of lies. In one scene, Raima Sen’s character is seen being urged by someone named Narayan Bagchi—later revealed to be a renowned university professor—to infiltrate Bollywood and the academic community with a radical leftist philosophy.
A very crude representation of a university, like one in New Delhi, is shown in another portion. The creators claim that this specific institution and its students are celebrating the horrifying murder of 76 Jawans in the naxal-infested Dantewada via a parody-style music video. One of the pupils is portrayed calling the dead Jawans “dogs,” while other students are shown cheering together and carrying banners to further heighten the depiction’s depravity.
The blatant hatred doesn’t end there, as Adah Sharma’s character declares in a savage monologue toward the film’s conclusion that she would murder left-leaning liberals without fear of facing the death penalty. While some may argue that it’s merely an emotional police conversation, it really establishes a very risky precedent for viewers.
Additionally, the filmmakers have added an unpleasant amount of needless, overdone gore in a few instances. The story is given a voyeuristic touch by the sick fixation with the rough representation, even if I find the motivation behind it to be incomprehensible. The toddler’s pleas were muffled by the crackling noise of the fire in a scenario where an insurgent picked her up and threw her onto a flaming rooftop. There are an endless number of unsettling situations like this one in the movie.
The performances by actors like Adah Sharma, Yashpal Sharma, Shilpa Shukla, Raima Sen, Purnendu Bhattacharya, and others, however, are one of the main lessons to be learned from Bastar: The Naxal Story. All of them, notably Adah Sharma and Vijay Krishna, did a good job playing their respective roles. From the action scenes to the cinematography and visual effects to the settings, the film’s production quality is superb in every aspect. Ratna and her kid have a deep emotional bond as well. Additionally, the filmmakers are successful in portraying the indifference of tribal people, who often find themselves trapped between law enforcement and rebels, with pressure building on both sides.
However, Sudipto Sen’s directing ultimately fails, mostly because of the film’s clumsy plot that offers nothing more than shock and gore and a lack of inventiveness and organization about the Naxalite uprising in Bastar.
