Dedh Bigha Zameen movie review: Pratik Gandhi and Khushalii Kumar present a melancholic mirror of our society

Dedh Bigha Zameen movie review: Pratik Gandhi and Khushalii Kumar present a melancholic mirror of our society

What: ‘Dedh Bigha Zameen’ the Pratik Gandhi, Khushalii Kumar starer is a social drama that presents a melancholic mirror of our society

Dedh Bigha Zameen movie synopsis

Anil Singh (Pratik Gandhi) a gehu wala – wheat/grain merchant in UP’s small town Ratanpura is a simple common man. Anil Singh is living peacefully with his wife played by Khushalii Kumar, sister Neha (Prasanna Bisht), mother (Neeta Mohindra) and uncle (Dayashankar Pandey). Neha is young and has entered the marriage age, one day a match comes from her. The father of the groom played by Vinod Nahardih puts forward a list of demands that includes cash, jewelry and a bolero or an SUV as dowry.

Anil accepts the illegal demand as for a middle-class Indian a young girl sitting at home is not a norm, she has to get married and the dowry practice does take place in spite of being illegal.

The cost of the wedding along with the demands comes to around 45- 50 lakhs, Anil’s father has left a piece of land at a good location and Anil decides to sell it for Neha’s wedding but there is a catch, the broker informs him that the land is under MLA Amar Singh’s (Neeraj Sood) position. Now what will the aam aadmi Anil do.?

Dedh Bigha Zameen movie review

The title reminds us of the Bimal Roy’s 1953 masterpiece ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ starring Balraj Sahni in lead giving one of his most incredible performance.

‘Dedh Bigha Zameen’ by director Pulkit (Bhakshak previous) does have that similar common man struggle against the powerful, corrupt theme which in fact has been repeated umpteen times in Indian cinema.

‘Dedh Bigha Zameen’ adapts a simple approach and the socially relevant tale is told simply without any nonsense. The scenes sequences like the scene when bargaining on cash for dowry is getting discuss and the boy is munching samosa while the girl is shy, nervous and eager to know the result is nicely done. The police station sequence, the meeting with MLA and before with his PA (Durgesh Singh) increase hope of a social drama that has occasional punches of dark/sly humour.

The brokers episode gives a passing flash back of Khosla Ka Gosla as well. However, the fight of the common man in this movie is incomplete as the director opts for a shocking ending leaving a question which may no be satisfying for all viewers. The makers are successful in raising the question and showing the mirror of the society but the aam darshak in this on-screen struggle of an aam aadmi may be disappointed for not getting the solution.

Performances

Pratik Gandhi is outstanding right from the word go and he portrays his versatility when circumstances change him from a simple man to a helpless brother to a determined man who is ready to go all out now to get back his father’s land. Brilliant.

Khushaali Kumar in de- glam role is fantastic as the supportive wife who understands the suffering her husband is going through and stands by him. Making a fascinating debut in Dhoka – Round the Corner as the unpredictable and mysterious housewife, to shining impressively in the complex character of Tara - a skilled commercial diver fighting her childhood trauma, societal norms and complex relationships. Khushaali gets very limited dialogues but she emotes rightly on every occasion becoming the strongest supporter of her husband Anil.

Prasanna Bist, as Neha, leaves an impression

Good support comes from Vinod Nahardih – the boy’s father, Neeraj Sood as MLA Amar Singh. Panchayat fame - Faisal Malik as Police Inspector and Durgesh Kumar as MLA’s PA are very good.

Dedh Bigha Zameen - Final words

‘Dedh Biga Zameen’ is a sad reminder that power leads to corruption and the common man had struggled, is struggling and will struggle no matter who becomes the MLA, MP, CM or PM.