IMDb RATING
7.5/10
5.3K
YOUR RATING
The story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994.The story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994.The story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994.
- Awards
- 4 wins & 3 nominations
Nirmal Pandey
- Vikram Mallah
- (as Nirmal Panday)
Raghubir Yadav
- Madho
- (as Raghuvir Yadav)
Manoj Bajpayee
- Man Singh
- (as Manoj Bajpai)
Ranjit Chowdhry
- Shiv Narain
- (as Ranjit Chaudhry)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was banned by the Indian authorities due to its graphic scenes of sex and violence. It also incurred the wrath of its own subject, Phoolan Devi, who objected to the fact that she hadn't been invited to see the film. Devi claimed it was riddled with inaccuracies.
- Quotes
Puttilal: [Tied to a pole and beaten with rifle-butt] Forgive me.
Phoolan Devi: Forgive you?
Phoolan Devi: Write this to the police.
Vikram Mallah: What?
Phoolan Devi: Any man that marries a little girl... I'll kill him.
- Alternate versionsThe film became banned due to its content. It was later re-released theatrically and the CBFC cut out about 2 minutes of profanity and shortened all rape scenes for an 'A' (adults) rating in 1995. 17 minutes was cut for a U/A rating for television.
Featured review
Phoolan Devi, Bandit Queen
"Bandit Queen" is a controversial and groundbreaking Indian film (co-produced by Great Britain's "Channel Four") telling the real-life story of Phoolan Devi (Seema Biswas, excellent), a low-caste woman given to a husband at age 11 who runs away from him, is constantly violated by upper-caste males, until pairing with a handsome outlaw, Vikram Mallah (Nirmal Pandey), who shows her some respect and invites her to join his gang. Devi became a mythical national figure in her own lifetime (she had just been released from an 11-year prison term when the movie came out, and was murdered in 2001), hailed as "The Bandit Queen" or "Queen of the Ravines". Although at first Devi took legal action to ban the movie's exhibition in India (and it was actually banned for some time - after all, this is no Bollywood fantasy), she eventually changed her mind (plus, Channel Four paid her $60,000...).
A lot has been said about the accuracy of everything portrayed on screen ("My life was much harder", Devi would have said after the first time she saw the movie). Just like he would do in 1998's successful "Elizabeth", Shekhar Kapur knows how to turn a larger than life, actual trajectory in a huge spectacle - but still keeping the essence of its core. Truth be told, this is one of those extraordinary sagas that if even half of what's portrayed on screen is real, it's already quite a journey. Kapur might have been a high-caste, city-bred man trying to portray the life of a brave and rebellious low-caste woman fighting for her survival - in a way that no other woman in her time had done, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know or doesn't have the right to try to depict this reality he doesn't directly belong to. How honest Kapur's original intentions were we can't know for sure, but that doesn't undermine his accomplishment here; this is a story that had to be told to a larger international audience. If a movie manages to work both as an adventurous spectacle and a tale of resurgence after national injustice and misfortunes, then it deserves to be seen. 8.5/10.
A lot has been said about the accuracy of everything portrayed on screen ("My life was much harder", Devi would have said after the first time she saw the movie). Just like he would do in 1998's successful "Elizabeth", Shekhar Kapur knows how to turn a larger than life, actual trajectory in a huge spectacle - but still keeping the essence of its core. Truth be told, this is one of those extraordinary sagas that if even half of what's portrayed on screen is real, it's already quite a journey. Kapur might have been a high-caste, city-bred man trying to portray the life of a brave and rebellious low-caste woman fighting for her survival - in a way that no other woman in her time had done, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know or doesn't have the right to try to depict this reality he doesn't directly belong to. How honest Kapur's original intentions were we can't know for sure, but that doesn't undermine his accomplishment here; this is a story that had to be told to a larger international audience. If a movie manages to work both as an adventurous spectacle and a tale of resurgence after national injustice and misfortunes, then it deserves to be seen. 8.5/10.
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- Apr 16, 2010
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- La reina de los bandidos
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $399,748
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $34,728
- Jul 2, 1995
- Gross worldwide
- $399,748
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