Bawandar (बवंदर) 2000

Published on April 2, 2013 in Cinema

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Banner	Smriti Pictures
Director	Jag Mundhra
Writer	Ashok Mishra, Sudha Arora
Producer	Gaurang Joshi
Production executive	Vinod Doshi
Orginal music	V. M. Bhatt , Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography	Ashok Kumar
Film Editing	Jag Mundhra
Art Director	Jayant Deshmukh
Camera Operator
Assistant Cameramen
Playback Singers	Ram Shankar, Sapna Awasthi , Mahalakshmi Iyer, Sonali Vajpayee, Parmeshwari, Nandita Das, Jagya Sarsi, Rita Ganguly,Richa Sharma, K Vikas

Character	Actor / Actress
Saanvri	Nandita Das
Sohan	Raghuvir Yadav
Shobha Devi	Deepti Naval
Ravi	Rahul Khanna
Amy	Laila Rouass
Dhanraj Meena	Govind Namdeo
Purnia Gujjar	Ishrat Ali
Sarju	Yashpal Sharma
Tej Karan	Lalit Tiwari
Mangal Panda	Anupam Shyam
	Ashok Banthia
	Shri Vallabh Vyas
Police Inspector	Ravi Jhankal
	Mohan Bhandari
	Lillete Dubey
	Kadambari
Advocate Pratap Chauhan	Gulshan Grover

Bawandar is based on the true story of Bhanwari Devi's gang-rape case. The names of characters and places have been changed for legal reasons. For example, Bhanwari's character is called Sanwari, her husband Mohan's character is called Sohan, and their village is called Dhabri (Bhateri in real life).

The story is introduced through first-part narration by a foreign reporter called Amy (Laila Rouass), who has read about Sanwari's case in a newspaper. Amy and her friend-cum-interpreter Ravi (Rahul Khanna) visit Sanwari's village to investigate the matter, five years after the gang rape incident. On their arrival in Rajasthan, they encounter an old man Sohan (Raghuvir Yadav), who helps them on their way to a village where they encounter Sanwari's rapists. Sohan turns out to be Sanwari's husband, and tells the tale of Sanwari's rape case.

Shobha (Deepti Naval) is a social worker who works for the Government of India. Her job involves create awareness against child-marriage and other social evils. In Dhabri, she recruits Sanwari (Nandita Das) as a saathin, a grassroots worker employed as part of the Women's Development Project run by the Government of Rajasthan. Sanwari is a low-caste potter; her husband Sohan is a rickshaw-puller, and the couple has a young girl called Kamli.As part of her job, Sanwari educates the womenfolk in the village against child marriages, and invites ire of the conservative village elders. Most of these villagers belong to the Gurjar community, which is upper in the caste hierarchy. Five men decide to teach Sanwari a lesson, when she informs the police about a child marriage happening in the Gurjar community. They beat up her husband and gang-rape her.

Sanwari and Sohan go to the police station, but the inspector (Ravi Jhankal) refuses to lodge a First Information Report in absence of a medical report. The doctor won't issue a medical report in absence of a court order. With Shobha's help, the couple finally manages to get a court order. With the court order, they get a medical certificate in Jaipur, and a complaint is lodged two days after the incident.However, the rapists are not arrested and roam around freely, boasting about their experience with Sanwari. Sanwari's case gets nation-wide attention and the Prime Minister of India himself entrusts the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. A women's NGO in Delhi also tries to help Sanwari.

The accused are arrested and tried in the court, but they are backed by the local MLA Dhanraj Meena (Govind Namdeo). Meena hires a lawyer called Purohit to defend the accused. A Gurjar lawyer (Gulshan Grover) defends Saanwari, but faces pressure from his community to favor the accuse. The judges handling the case are transferred multiple times, and the final judgement goes against her.Bhanwari refuses to give up her fight for justice, in spite of unhelpful villagers and relatives, an incompetent police force, and a corrupt judicial system.

Release date	2000
Budget
Revenue

The film was showcased at several international film festivals and won multiple awards:
Audience Choice Award , Bermuda International Film Festival (2001)
Political Film Society, USA (PFS) Award - Peace Category (2004)
Best Actress (Nandita Das), Santa Monica Film Festival
2001: Zanzibar International Film Festival: Golden Dhow

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