Parle Tilak Vidyalaya Association’s

Mulund College of Commerce

(Autonomous)

Assignment
FYBCOM (SEMESTER II)

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS

“Film Review”

Name of the Student: Singh Aditi Jitendra

Roll No. 230514 Div: C
Film Name: Bandit Queen

Declaration: I declare that the assignment prepared and presented by me is

an original work and has not been plagiarized. This work has not been
submitted for any other evaluation for any other course.
 Table of Contents

S.N. Title Page No.

1 Cover Page 1
2 Table of Contents 2
3 Preface 3
4 Bandit Queen 4
5 Film Review 5
6 Conclusion 9
7 Bibliography 10
 Preface
There are lots of human rights but in this project main focus is on women empowerment,
this project is all about the film review of “Bandit Queen” original name “Phoolan devi” who
belongs to lower caste family of Uttar-Pradesh. This film shows how Phoolan devi was
sexually abused by upper caste men, take her revenge from the thakurs, surrender herself to
the police, come back and participate in parliament and also win seat and how she died, all
these things are in the film shown.
In this movie the discrimination between upper and lower caste was also shown, sad reality
of our society is that there is still discrimination.
This movie “Bandit Queen” is famous like “Robin Hood” traditionally and gained reputation
all over the world.
I choose this film because of in this film both issues or rights is violated “women
empowerment and equality”.
In the period of 1994-2001, Phoolan devi was the role model for the women who are
sexually abused and want fight for their freedom of life and equality. She influences over
70% of population of Uttar Pradesh.
As per my perspective is the fighter, and not only is fight for her self she also stands for many
women. she is the real hero for every woman in the country.

BANDIT QUEEN
P HOOLAN DEVI the “Bandit Queen”, was an Indian dacoit who became a politician,
serving as a member of parliament until her assassination. Born on 10 th August 1963 in the
village of Gorha Ka Purwa, Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh, India and died on 25 July 2001(aged 37)
new Delhi, India.
The Bandit Queen is a powerful and moving film that explores the themes of women
empowerment, friendship and revenge, as covered in the book “India’s Bandit Queen: The
True Story of Phoolan Devi” by Mala Sen.

Release date of this movie was 26 January 1994, Seema Biswas play the role of Phoolan
Devi, and this movie was not only famous in India but also in United States and Canada
and many other countries. This movie “Bandit Queen” is famous like “Robin Hood”
traditionally and gained reputation all over the world.
Although Phoolan devi is a heroine in the film, she fiercely disputed its accuracy and
fought to get it banned in India. She even threatened to immolate herself outside a
theatre if the film were not withdrawn. It was banned because of violence against women
and talks about rape involving upper-class men.

Directed by Shekar Kapoor

FILM REVIEW
“Bandit Queen”, Phoolan devi is one of six children from a poor family, she was married at
the age of eleven, to thirty-three old a man from the neighbour village of same caste, who
was gave her parents a cow, and threw in a bicycle. Torn weeping from her mother's arms,
she was used by her husband as a beast of burden, and taunted by the higher castes of the
village where she now lived. (Caste is sometimes a matter of small privileges; everyone in
the village draws water from the same well, but the higher castes have a pulley that makes
it easier.) Practices that are crimes in much of the world are accepted practices,
apparently, in this area. Devi is forced into sex by her 33-year-old husband while still a
child, as her mother-in-law listens in the next room. When she flees back to her parents,
they will not take her, because her "place" is with her husband.

But still she continued to live with her parents and one day when she was going to the
village to cook her food, the sarpanch's son attacked her. She rebelled like this but the
Sarpanch's son and his friends came together and harassed her in front of the entire
village. After some time, the Panchayat was held and Phoolan Devi's father was called
with her as the boy was the son of the Sarpanch who was of upper caste. After meeting
everyone in the panchayat, he blamed Phoolan and told her father that it was his
daughter's mistake, please take care of her. Sarpanch said Phoolan devi to leave the village
and to never come back again in future.

She later moves to her cousin brother (Kailash) home to stay, one day when he was
traveling along the road, he met a robber. Then at daybreak the dacoit Mastana started
keeping eye on Phoolan Devi, wherever she was going, Mastana was coming there. Then
one day Kailash's wife asked Kailash about Phoolan Devi and how many days will he stay
here. Kailash said that he never thought about this thing back and he did not even want to
think about it, Kailash wanted to say that Phoolan Devi is now at his home. But Kailash’s
wife then said to Phoolan Devi, how many more days will you stay here, when will you
leave this house, you have come for a few days, why are you staying here now? Phoolan
devi leave the house in anger and Kailash also follow to convince her, but Phoolan didn’t
stop.

Then, she went to her village but then a theft took place in someone's house and the
police put Phoolan Devi in jail considering her a criminal. Even in jail, the police did not
leave Phoolan Devi, first she was investigated and then she was sexually abused by police
officers. The next day her father came to the police station and the Thakurs got Devi's bail.

In may 1997, When Phoolan Devi went home with her father, a few robbers came in the
village at night to take Phoolan Devi, her family tried hard to save her but the robbers
threatened Phoolan Devi to kill her brother and then Phoolan Devi herself went with him.

The bandits started going everywhere taking Phoolan with them, mastana (Vikram mallah
mastana) was also one of them but he did not treat Phoolan Devi like others. When
mastana (Vikram) said something on behalf of Phoolan Devi, their leader started teasing
Vikram and said, see what I do with it. After then the leader sexually abused Phoolan devi.
One day Vikram killed the leader and become the leader of the group and warn the
member of group to treat Phoolan in good way.

Vikram also included Phoolan Devi in his group and Vikram was also returning the money
that his father had taken from Thakur for the bail of Phoolan Devi. Mastana taught
Phoolan Devi how to shoot, how to climb mountains, how to escape from policemen and
gradually she started learning everything about a dacoit and while doing this, Phoolan
Devi and Vikram started falling in love with each other.
Phoolan Devi, along with Mastana's group, looted a truck for the first time and after that
gradually she also started becoming a dacoit. Mastana was not the real head of the group,
the real head of the group was Thakur brothers “Shri Ram Singh” and “Lalla Ram Singh”.
Both of them were in jail and after being released, they came back to handle their gang.

Shri ram singh told mastana (Vikram) to meet Phoolan Devi, Devi hesitated a little and
wanted to meet both of them. Shri Ram Singh misbehave with Phoolan in front of
mastana (Vikram), Mastana did not say anything because after all he was slaver.
Mastana told Devi that if anyone does this to you again, then slap him or shoot him.
The next day when she was near the bank of the river washing clothes and Mastana was
also doing some work, during that time Shri Ram Singh fired a shot at Mastana (Vikram).
Phoolan Devi used the gun to save Mastna with some member of the group and took
mastana to the city for treatment. He went and Mastana also got well, then after resting
for a few days, he took Mastana Devi to her village to meet her family.
She was very happy to meet her family, and cried hugging her mother. Her happiness
increased in the tears of his eyes and then Mastana made the devi understand that living
here is not safe, both of them came out of her village.

Then both of them went to the place where Phoolan Devi's husband lived who was
married to 11-year-old Phoolan Devi. Mastana found this man and brought him out of the
house and Phoolan Devi killed him in front of the entire village and warned the village
people that after today no one will marry a small girl and if that happens then the
consequences will be very bad. Mastana was very happy to see this form of Phoolan Devi
because Phoolan Devi did what she should have done earlier, with the courage of her body
she killed the man and also warned the villagers that this was happening. That this flower
goddess cannot be stopped by anyone, this flower goddess will not be weak and weak.

After all this, when Phoolan Devi and Mastana came together, Mastana said that now you
have become a true warrior to face your world, you eat like us but now if you have to kill
someone, then no one will. kill 20, Phoolan Devi asked why it is so but Mastana said if you
kill 1 then you will die and if you kill 20 then your name will be made, you will be called
rebel.
In this way, Phoolan Devi and Mastana were walking like someone shot Mastana and
killed Phoolan Devi. Those people and someone else, Shri Ram Singh and his people, took
Phoolan Devi to Behmai village. And then everyone together raped Phoolan Devi, one by
one they tore Phoolan Devi to pieces.
Three days later, they presented Phoolan Devi naked in front of the entire village and
asked her to bring water from that well. They did not hesitate at all before doing all this.
And then in the night when Kailash was passing through the road, he heard someone
crying and when he went, he saw that it was Phoolan Devi and no one else, so he
immediately took Phoolan Devi out of there. Kailash introduced Phoolan Devi to a man
named “Man Singh” who was a friend of mastana (Vikram).
MAN SINGH took devi and went to his people and met his chief (Muslim man) and told the
chief that I have brought devi out of respect for you but she is really needing your help.
The chief said, "I know her, she calls me a goddess." After that MAN SINGH said that she is
Vikram Mallah's wife. The chief asked how many times had I told Vikram to leave the gang
of Shri Ram Singh and Lalla Ram Singh but he never listens to me. The head then asked
Phoolan Devi what kind of help she needed from him. Devi told the chief that my fight is
not only with those two but with the entire Thakur caste.
And there are more Muslim people in your gang, we the rebels and you do not have any
discrimination but see in future everyone will have discrimination among their own
people. Then the chief formed a gang and gave it to Man Singh and Phoolan Devi, when a
wedding procession was going on in the village, Phoolan Devi and Maan Singh along with
their gang committed a robbery in the village and stole everything. After all this Devi went
to meet the chief, the chief praised Devi and said that Devi, your rate is failing in the entire
Chambal village you are very danger. Then the chief also told the goddess that a news has
come to her that "Shri Ram and Lalla Ram are going to attend a wedding" but don't be
afraid to make efforts so that you will be saved.
On 14th February 1981, the fire inside Phoolan Devi did not relent and she reached the
village where the wedding was to take place and Shri Ram and Lalla Ram were about to
come. The wedding rituals had just begun when Devi went with her companions and
attacked the entire village. Shri Ram and Lalla Ram did not meet the Devi but they hunted
down 22 Thakurs from their houses and killed them because when they were in front of a
entire village, they misbehaved with the Devi and all the Thakurs were just watching them.
No one said anything and no one stopped.
Whatever Phoolan Devi did, the chief was worried because the police was searching for
her like crazy. The chief said that we too had shed a lot of blood but had never taken the
life of any innocent person. Phoolan Devi should not have done all this. Chief was very
worried for devi.
There is talk going on in the government offices in Delhi to kill Phoolan Devi but one
officer said that now too many people have started attacking Phoolan Devi, we cannot kill
Devi but we can ask her to surrender herself.
From March 4th, 1981, the police started hunting and killing rebels, on 1 st April 1981 police
Killed some more people who were with Devi, then one person went and told Man Singh
and Devi to not go to the river bank, the police will kill all of you. Phoolan devi man singh
could not go to the river and he saw that the policemen had found blood in the river and
Phoolan devi got drunk and passed out and then Kailash came with man singh to get
water for Phoolan, Sri Ram along with the police. They come with people to kill Phoolan
Devi, and on 12th February 1983, Phoolan Devi surrenders herself.
Phoolan Devi had set conditions regarding her surrender, which included: no death
penalty for anyone from her gang; a maximum custodial sentence of eight years; no use of
handcuffs; being imprisoned as a group; being imprisoned in Madhya Pradesh and not
Uttar Pradesh; her family being given land with space for her goat and cow; and her
brother getting a government job. She and seven men, including Man Singh, surrendered.
In November 1993, a government of the lower castes came to power in the state of Uttar
Pradesh. This government withdrew all 55 charges against Phoolan devi – including 22
charges of murder.
Phoolan devi was released from jail on 18th February 1994 under heavy security. The
thakur, shri ram, who escaped the massacre at behmai, was killed in inter-gang warfare
while Phoolan devi was in jail. Shri ram brother Lalla ram was alive the day Phoolan devi
was released.
After her release from prison, she joined the Samajwadi Party and in the 1996 general
election took a seat in the Indian lower legislative body, the Lok Sabha, as the Member of
Parliament (MP) for Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. She won with a margin of 37,000 and had
more than 300,000 votes in total. She was not the only illiterate MP, joining others such as
Bhagwati Devi and Shobhawati Devi. Phoolan Devi campaigned with limited success for
the rights of women and to provide better amenities for the poor. She told author Roy
Moxham "I want to bring hospitals, schools, electricity and clean water to the poor in the
villages. To stop child marriage and to improve life for women. Mallah people were happy
to have someone of their caste representing them in parliament for the first time and she
was generally popular among Other Backward Classes. She lost her seat to Virendra Singh,
the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the 1998 elections.
Phoolan Devi married Umed Singh in 1994; they appeared together in a film, called Sholay
Aur Chingari. Together with her new husband, she became a Buddhist, aiming to evade the
Hindu caste system.
on 25 July 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot dead by three unknown assailants outside her
house at 44 Ashoka Road in New Delhi. She was shot nine times and her bodyguard was
hit twice; he returned fire as the attackers escaped by car. She was rushed to Lohia
Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. She was aged 37 when she died and serving
as an MP. Days after the murder, Sher Singh Rana {Pankaj Singh Pundir} surrendered to
police in Dehra Dun and claimed he had assassinated Phoolan Devi in revenge for the
Behmai massacre.
 CONCLUSION
Bandit queen film inspires all the women, Phoolan Devi suffered a lot, and fought for her
rights, she has taken the maximum number of votes and has won the election in a good
way after coming back from jail.
She influences over 70% population of the state of Uttar-Pradesh. Devi became a
mouthpiece for millions of women, for whose rights and recognition she fought. She called
for women to defend themselves against men’s violence and called for politician action in
this regard.
Among other things, she took part in the UN conference on the situation of women in New
York in June 2000.
Bandit Queen is a gripping and thought-provoking movie because of how well director
Shekhar Kapur tells the story and how well the actors play their parts. The raw and honest
way the movie shows Phoolan's problems and victories is a powerful reminder of how
strong the human spirit is. It shows how marginalised groups are treated unfairly by the
system as a whole. It also questions social rules by looking at gender-based violence and
caste discrimination in a straight-forward way.
Bandit Queen is a strong biopic that will stay with you because it shows Phoolan Devi's
unbreakable spirit and her fight against injustice. It shows how strong the human will be
and how brave it is to go against what society says is right. Bandit Queen has a great story,
great acting, and themes that make you think. It is an important addition to Indian film
and deserves the praise and attention it has received. The story of Bandit Queen is
powerful and full of strong feelings. It shows how hard life was for Phoolan Devi.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
#TV NEWS WEBSITE LINK:
https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/phoolan-devi-birth-
anniversary-an-exceptional-journey-of-the-bandit-
queen-14420282.htm

#REVIEWS WEBSITE LINK:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bandit-queen-
1995

#YOUTUBE LINK (FILM LINK):

https://youtu.be/x0XxJS5YiZ0?si=ba10nLoEESBbHL-C