Gandhari Review: Enter The Warrior Mother

Gandhari|Director: Devashish Makhija |Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Ishwak Singh | Hindi | Netflix

Devashish Makhija is a filmmaker who understands the margins of Indian society, having lived and learned there. In Taapsee Pannu, he meets a fearlessly physical actor who is not afraid to train her body to receive and render grave assault. Located in the fictional town of Joypurra where the Goddess Chaumukhi is celebrated by the Bahrupiyas, their film Gandhari begins on a train where a child is kidnapped. Taapsee plays Bani, the distraught mother, and Ishwak Singh is her grief-stricken husband. One thing leads to another, and they find that Joypurra is the centre of a child kidnapping racket, using the Bahrupiyas as cover. Makhija manages to make the entire town a series of smoke and mirrors, with snakes and scorpions at every point. Taapsee’s temporary blindness gives the movie the epic title but it is several kinds of blindness that Makhija alludes to, beginning with the apathy towards missing children to the easy criminalisation of indigenous communities.

Taapsee is in superb physical shape and her movie background as a street artist gives her the backlife to perform serious acrobatics. She is sensational in the fight scenes, giving and taking punches to every part of her body. There is no greater warrior than a mother, someone says at one point in the movie, Taapsee proves it. She’s a warrior who deserves better in Bollywood.