Things move too fast and in jerks at times.
The cast, many of whom became more familiar names later, is very good. Phoolan Devi didn't live very long after being released from prison in 1994.The film scores on several counts. Survived long enough to see her story made into a movie at least. The reason why this stands out is that it's supposed to be a first person account of someone who actually went through all this, and a lot else that doesn't find place on the screen, and survived to tell the tale. In fact, there have been several fictional accounts of this particular story itself. The film, the cast, and Shekhar Kapoor, deserve accolades for the breakthrough effort.The plot is not very different from a typical revenge drama made in various forms in India. The language, the stark treatment and the natural acting (by a relatively unknown cast for that time) might have been even more shocking at that time for an Indian populace more familiar with fantasy cinema. I saw Bandit Queen in 2005, over a decade after it was made amidst widespread controversy in India. Her misgivings are, it seems, not with what is depicted but with the way in which the film depicts her. It should be stressed that concerns about how feminist the film's messages really are and the like are essentially irrelevant: it's a true story. Since then, I saw a report that she has been ousted from office and charged with further crimes from her Dacoit days, and has gone into hiding as a result.Her own concerns aside, this is an excellent film, made all the more so by its refreshingly brutal approach none of the rose-tinted melodrama one might expect from a typical indian film. I do not know whether it was shown at all or not, but given her standing at the time as a rising politician, I doubt it. It may interest people to know that this film was made without any recourse to Phoolan Devi herself and, when she did finally see parts of it, was so enraged that she announced that the film was not to be shown in India or she would cover herself in petrol and set fire to herself.
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