In an era of too much information, social media-induced numbness and ultra-limited attention spans, sometimes, there comes news that shakes society out of its collective stupor. The Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case of 2018 – the racket that inspired this Netflix film – was one such incident.
In 2018, a research report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) brought to light the shocking sexual abuse of young women and children in a shelter home run by a politician in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India. The case – a perfect example of an ineffective, corrupt system, an inept media and brutal political power crushing society’s most vulnerable – caused outrage for a while before the news cycle pedalled on to some other TRP-generating drama.
Director Pulkit uses this well-documented story as the premise for Bhakshak, meaning predator. However, here, it’s not just the monsters who abuse children who are the predators. The larger predator is the ‘system’ which, instead of providing justice to the weak, uses those very mechanisms to protect the perpetrators. Though it does not reference the case directly, the movie merges fact and fiction. So Muzaffarpur becomes Munawwarpur, TISS becomes NISS and the original institute’s Koshish project (which did the audit of the homes) becomes the name of the TV channel that exposes the crime.
Bhakshak begins well. The opening scene is that of an abuse and murder which hits you in the gut and gives an indication of the horrors that are waiting to unfold. The mood is grim in the dusty lanes of Munawwarpur, the seedy shelter home is full of leery men and scared girls, and the dangerous darkness reflect zero hope. Our protagonist, an intrepid journalist, Vaishali Singh (Bhumi Pednekar), operates from this scenario. Aided by only a stoic cameraman, Bhaskar Sinha (Sanjay Mishra), she sets out to unravel the scandal.
Needless to say, she faces every obstacle possible, from threats by the criminals to an unsupportive patriarchal family. Yet the spirited Vaishali marches on undeterred, almost becoming an activist while using her journalistic skills to spread the news.
Pulkit and his co-writer Jyotsna Nath have their heart in the right place. But more than the legal system, they place their faith is in activist-journalism. The screenplay recognises the ills ailing the media including the dependence on virality to get noticed, and it almost seems the makers are making a plea to the media to do its job. Bhumi plays the idealistic journalist much in the mould of ‘filmi’ journalists of the past with their mix of lecture, sincerity and bravado.
Rating: 3 stars