Bollywood’s dacoit dramas: No Gabbars anymore, but the genre could roar again

Two words. Gabbar Singh. That tells a cinephile in India what dizzying heights a dacoit movie could scale. Most likely inspired by the Hollywood classic, The Magnificent Seven (1960), Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 blockbuster Sholay defined a film genre unique to this country — that’s the one revolving around the rifle-toting men of Chambal, the region of central India synonymous with outlaws.

These bandits of Bollywood had it really good from the ’70s to the ’90s. However, biopics such as Bandit Queen (1994) and Paan Singh Tomar (2012) showed a different face of dacoits — they were forced by circumstances into taking up the gun, which, in fact, was the story of many real outlaws.

In recent years, with the 21st century changing the face of urban India, dacoit dramas on-screen have been rare. The Kangana Ranaut-starrer Revolver Rani (2014) and the Neha Dhupia-starrer Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010) just came and went.

Which is why a clutch of new dacoit films are making news. They are: Abhishek Chaubey’s Son Chiriya, led by Sushant Singh Rajput and Bhumi Pednekar, the shoot for which has just ended; Phamous, out next month, starring Jimmy Sheirgill and Kay Kay Menon; and a film based on Sultana Daku’s life, starring Randeep Hooda, to be directed by Madhureeta Anand, now being scripted.

Explaining this dacoit drought, Tigmanshu Dhulia, who directed Paan Singh Tomar, says, “Dacoits, who used to roam the Chambal valley, are almost extinct. Even the beehads (ravines) have become agricultural land, so there are no new stories.”

Chaubey agrees, and says, “You’d earlier read about [dacoits] in the papers. Stories about them and the feudal society they lived in resonated then with the movie audience. The dacoit era came to an end with the death or surrender of many of them.” He also feels that the genre faded because “the stories became hackneyed and repetitive”. The filmmaker explains, “The genre needs a revision — it’s thrilling, and with Son Chiriya, I hope to present a new kind of story that could be entertaining for a new audience.”

Dhulia adds that apart from Bandit Queen and Paan Singh Tomar, all the films depicted dacoits in an unreal way. “For instance, the Chambal dacoits never rode horses, so the genre itself was fake and twisted. They used to be revenge dramas set in the dacoit world. Today, all the ingredients can be found within the political space and the underworld, so the Chambal dacoit eventually faded out,” he says.

Karan Lalit Bhutani, director of Phamous, says that they have tried to explore the Chambal of today. “The film explores the attitude and mindset of the politics of that land. If Phamous can revive this space and open up cinema in the hinterland, then I’ll consider it a win,” he states.

Trade experts feel that with content-driven cinema coming to the fore, this genre can be brought back. Trade analyst Atul Mohan says, “Cinema is the only medium to know about these dacoits, so if an interesting film is made, the audience would accept it. Also, there are so many young actors who’re ready to experiment with such strong scripts and their looks, so a well-made film can surely work.”

Producer Rahul Mittra, who is backing Sultana Daku, says, “You have to make the dacoit dramas look realistic and personalised with a twist. Merely showing the language and ways of that world is overexposed and done to death, so a story will only work if there’s progression for the character. Dacoit dramas need not be always based on someone’s life. There’s so much about that world that people in our country still don’t know. So, if filmmakers take it as a challenge, the genre can make a successful comeback.”

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