Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai - Ultimate Sin

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai

2023, Hindi

Produced by Bhanushali Studios Limited and Zee Studios

Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki

Stars - Manoj Bajpayee, Vipin Sharma, 

Adrija, Jaihind Kumar, Durga Sharma 

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I begin by asking the reader to give me space in not taking Wikipedia by face value. Bandaa is not exactly a fictional story. In 2013, a teenager and her family entered a New Delhi police station to report how she had been molested by a very influential and well known god-man. At present, the latter is serving a life sentence in a Jodhpur prison, from where he is attempting to file a defamation of character suit against the producers of this film.

Bandaa is not a Bollywood movie, it is Hindi Cinema. There is no room for songs, romance and sentimentality. It is about how sometimes, despite expatriate views to the contrary, the judicial system can work to defend the common man.

Mr. Bajpayee has reached yet another level of genius in playing the refined but compassionate P C Solanki. His doing so without consulting the actual lawyer notwithstanding, I think his portrayal actually brings a feeling of hope that honesty and genuineness still persist in India, if only among the middle class.

The family he defends is also something to talk about. The three actors project the aura of simple, middle folk who, in seeking spiritual guidance, become victims to a far darker agenda. The horror is well expressed Ms. Adrija's acting, at times composed, at time cathartic, at other moments in the middle of a breakdown. 

The closing argument says it all, God did not emancipate Ravana because he kidnapped Sita, but because he did so in the guise of a sage.