Pratik Gandhi once again proves that he is an actor who can bring any character to life with his dedication to his craft and instinctive understanding of what the role requires, observes Deepa Gahlot.
In 1953, Bimal Roy had made his masterpiece, Do Bigha Zamin, in which a poor farmer loses his land to a corrupt system that makes it impossible for him to pay back a small loan.
The title of Pulkit's new film, Dedh Bigha Zameen, is a reminder of that film, and also a sad chronicle of the helplessness of the common citizen today. The feudal system of the 1950s has been replaced by a corrupt political elite that has no respect for the law.
Anil Singh (Pratik Gandhi) is a grain merchant in the non descript town of Ratanpura in UP. He lives a simple life with his wife (Khushalii Kumar), sister Neha (Prasanna Bisht), mother (Neeta Mohindra) and uncle (Dayashankar Pandey). A match comes for Neha, and the groom's father arrogantly puts forward a list of demands for cash jewellery, SUV, wedding expenses.
Anil accepts them -- for an ordinary man, dowry is a fact of life and there is no escaping it. Having an unmarried young woman in the home is considered shameful in small town India, and there is no judgement of Anil's meek acquiescence to the odious man's greed.
His father had left him a piece of valuable land, and Anil thinks he can sell it and pay for the wedding, but the broker tells him that the possession of the land is with the MLA, and fighting him would be foolhardy.
Like every law abiding citizen, Anil has touching faith in the police and courts. If he has the papers, why can't he sell his own land? The cops refuse to file a complaint against the MLA and the court dismisses his petition.
His brother-in-law Babloo (Mukesh Chhabra), a lawyer, explains to him that there is a long battle ahead of him -- property cases can go on for decades, maybe generations. Even as his illusions are gradually crushed, and he transforms from mild-mannered to angry and frustrated, Anil naively believes in the power of hope.
Pulkit's film has its short bursts of dark humour, but it is not a David-versus-Goliath story of easy victory of the weak, like Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006). In India, real life is not fuelled by optimism.
The viewer cannot but sympathise with Anil and root for him every time it looks like he has made a breakthrough that will solve his problem, and wish that this harried man will smile again.
The power of evil cannot be underestimated, and more often than not, goodness is not an adequately sharp weapon.
Pulkit's treatment of the heart-wrenching story has the unembellished look of reality. And Pratik Gandhi once again proves that he is an actor who can bring any character to life with his dedication to his craft and instinctive understanding of what the role requires. Others in the cast -- some familiar faces from OTT -- offer adequate support, but this is Gandhi's show all the way.
Dedh Bigha Zameen streams on JioCinema.
