Movie Review - Bhoomi by Suhel Johar

Bhoomi Is A Repulsive Rape and Revenge Drama

Sanjay Dutt’s much-awaited comeback film Bhoomi has finally released. The film is a 70s style "worn-out rape and revenge film", reeking of staleness. After Matr and Mom, Bhoomi is the third film featuring the gory tale of a young woman’s rape and the retribution sought out by her parent.

Since the plot is not a new one we expected Sanjay Dutt’s comeback film to be an evocative flick showcasing the subtleties of a father-daughter relationship, the pains of a violated woman, or at least a new and novel take on revenge. Sadly, Bhoomi fails us on all these counts.

The film’s story revolves around a father-daughter living in Agra. The spunky girl Bhoomi (Aditi Rao Hydari) has been raised by her father Arun (Sanjay Dutt), a widower. TV actor Sidhant Gupta plays Bhooli’s love interest. The father and daughter are exceptionally close and Arun’s friend (Shekhar Suman) also lavishes Bhoomi with filial love. Also in the neighbourhood is a young man Vishal (Puru Chibbar) who is in love with Bhoomi and is smarting under the rejection. With the help of his cousin Dhauli (Sharad Kelkar) and a friend Gulab, Vishal abducts Bhoomi a day before the wedding and they molest the girl. Her wedding is called off and as she approaches the courts for justice. A bad abduction and another assault later, Bhoomi is still unsuccessful in receiving a fair trial. Arun and Bhoomi try to move on but social pressure keeps her wounds alive. Finally father and daughter decide to take law into their own hands and punish the rapists.

Director Omung Kumar starts off on a rather sound note depicting the abduction of Bhoomi. The rest of the first half is then retold as a flashback. Problem with this is that our expectations by now are very high. The first half of the film is well paced though very predictable. We keep waiting for that one twist, the one tear jerking touch that will set Bhoomi apart, that will remind us that this movie comes from the same director who gave us Mary Kom (2014) and Sarbjit (2016). The second half goes from bad to unbearable. The scenes of graphic violence manage to break the monotony but the best thing about the latter half of this film will be your tub of popcorn. Talking about the father-daughter bonding of Sanjay and Aditi which is shown quite sweetly but after a point, it irritates you. Sanjay’s screen presence is something which you can’t ignore but even that does not redeem Bhoomi.

Inside the guise of striking a blow for feminism, Bhoomi is found mostly, disturbingly voyeuristic. The film does pay lip service to the notion that a daughter, after being violated, has every right to let live ‘with her head held high’. But only after we are shown, in gory detail, the abduction, the leery faces of the rapists, the ugly enjoyment of the neighbours,  the mandatory  prolonged court scene in which a sneering female prosecutor assume free to shame the rape victim, and thunder on about ‘girls ‘ reaching  home late at night not having any morals.

Omung Kumar’s direction is confused and so are we when Dutt starts off trying to scare the villains but soon scales down to Bollywood potboiler style bloodshed. And as the revenge drama reaches its climax, the one who makes the most impact isn’t the victim but the one who takes revenge on her behalf. There is nothing new in the story penned by Sandeep Singh. Raaj Shaandilya’s script is the weakest link in the film while his dialogues are ordinary.

Cinematography byArtur Zurawski is average. Editing by Jayesh Shikarkhane is sloppy. Music by Sachin-Jigar works in the film. Ismail Darbar’s background is effective. Choreography by Ganesh Acharya is good.

 

Aditi Rao Hydari in the titular role is the best thing about Bhoomi. She is stunning and has delivers an incredible performance. Moving on to Sanjay Dutt, the only thing that is gladdening about his performance is the fact that he chose a role befitting his age. This, however, does not improve on the clichéd set of expressions that we have now come to expect of him.

Sidhant Gupta who makes his film debut with Bhoomi is not bad. Sharad plays the typical 80s villain mouthing stupid dialogues. Shekhar Suman does not make his presence felt. Puru Chibber, Riddhi Sen and Veer Aryan are okay.

On the whole, Bhoomi (land) is less fertile and more barren. A disappointing fare and definitely not the right comeback film for Sanjay Dutt.