Bhakshak 2024 Movie Review

Bhakshak 2024 Hindi Movie Storyline

Bhakshak 2024: Revolves around the journey of an unwavering woman’s quest to seek justice and her perseverance in bringing a heinous crime to light.

Bhakshak 2024 Overview

Genre: Drama, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: Hindi

Director: Pulkit

Producer: Gaurav Verma, Gauri Khan

Writer: Pulkit, Jyotsana Nath

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 9, 2024

Runtime: 2h 14m

Distributor: Netflix

Production Co: Red Chillies Entertainment

Bhakshak 2024 Movie Review

There comes an age in most people’s lives, when one can either tactically get involved with a social cause, or look the other way. Both actions with actual consequences.

This film is a good reminder, ki fight or flight response mein joh moral decision lena baaki reh gaya tha, thoda soch lo.

When even the TINIEST power goes unchecked, kitna time lagta hai uske misuse mein? Aapki 20 apartment waali RWA ke Sharma uncle khud ko Pradhan mantri se kam thode hi na maante hain, kyunki opposition mein bhi zyada se zyada Gupta uncle aayenge, dono shaam ko baith kar saath mein cigarette peete hain wife se chhupkar. And when Sharma and Gupta are elevated to various little little designations in the systems made by sharmas, guptas and tyagis who came before them, tab jab koi zara saa pushback toh chhorein, savaal hi agar pooch le, ki yeh ho kya raha hai, all hell breaks lose. How dare you question the impunity folks like me have enjoyed for generations?

Koshish News proprietor and journalist Vaishali Singh ask one question, and before she knows it, she’s a full-blown activist, in the made-up town of Munnawarpur, Bihar.

If you remember the 2018 real-life crime that inspired Bhakshak, you better arm yourself with all the trigger warnings you know you will need. This story deals with sexual abuse, especially when minors are involved, the perpetrators are abusing victims and powers alike. The filmmaker, who just goes by Pulkit doesn’t care about lulling anyone into a false sense of comfort. The first scene occurs right before an assault has taken place, and right before a murder is about to.

He also wants you to know, that while names, places, and likeness have been changed, ALL of this, is very close to something that happened in real life. An unspeakable tragedy that saw very little follow-up in the national media. Calls were made for the CM to resign. An outrage cycle followed, and once something equally or more blasphemous came to the fore, all was forgotten.

In a post-truth world, even the dumbest of crap must be headlined “break silence on”, or “makes shocking revelations”. Article Khol ke padhoge toh it’s the 3rd of a popular movie talking about the three scenes they were in. Movie ka title trending hai, toh clicks ke liye KISI KA BHI interview ho, title mein khaufnaak word ek chahiye. Just like the words “woke”, “politically correct”, and “feminist”, the word “journalist” now means 100 different things. Vaishali, who initially doesn’t want to cover to the story sold to her by an informant, is painfully aware that she’ll need to find ways to make it “viral” on Twitter. Bhumi Pednekar knows a thing or two about using the Internet for good and for gain. The actor infuses Vaishali with a reality she has seen and experienced up close. Bheed, Afwaah, Badhai Do, and now this, it’s a treat to see characters come alive fiercely and unflinchingly behind Bhumi’s eyes.

Vaishali is every girl who’s family thinks she is too karntikaari. Through her, the film enters the story but also uses her to keep distance FROM it. She is not a police officer walking in slow motion here to save the day. She is a lone woman realizing in slow motion just how difficult and near impossible her job is. There is also commentary here about the ickiness of journalists BECOMING the story. By keeping Vaishali sort of naively unaware and in one step BEHIND the enemy, Bhakshak manages to focus more on the robustness of the layers of systemic indemnity she is up against. A situation where one can only dream of winning when you realize you’re out of options, with nothing more to lose.

This David vs Goliath tale is ominous but pressing. In a scene, a politically adjacent man says to another “aaj agar yeh chhota bhi kuch kar raha hai toh rokiye, chhota agar bada ho gaya toh kya kariyega”. They’re talking about Vishali and her colleage Bhaskar Sinha played by an incredible Sanjay Mishra who just be recording piece after piece on their mobile phones, emboldened by nothing but a blind sense of justice, are pushing through obstacle after obstacle by brute force. Another replies ki aurat hain aur journalist hain isliye ruka hua hoon. Neither of those being any real reasons that’s ever stopped anyone in power, ever.

A stupendous Aditya Srivastav is evil incarnate Bansi Sahu. He TOO is a journalist, publishes small circulation local newspapers and runs the NGO the film is set in. Again re-iterating the kind of journalism a country needs Bansi is pitted against Vaishali, the old guard that went un-challenged vs the new that faces nothing but challenges.

Bhakshak does hit you over the head over and over again with what its getting at. Honest journalism is good, predators are bad. Its all black and white, no grays. Like the America Ferrara monologue in Barbie, everything you hear are things you know well in 2024, but also things that bear repeating, especially in 2024. Kuch badalna hai toh awaaz uthaani hogi is not a new vibe, but perhaps is more important now than it was 4or 5 years ago. To drive this home though, Pulkit, with co-writer Jyotsana Nath and editor Zubin Sheikh tends to occasionally flirt too dangerously with voyeurism. For the most part youre watching in horror, but in some bits you feel like the peeping tom.