Bheed Review: Anubhav Sinha’s film is frightening and heartbreaking to witness, Rajkummar Rao shines

3/5

Bheed, a lockdown thriller starring Rajkummar Rao, follows migrant workers as they attempt to return home amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The movie is too personal and brings back difficult memories from Covid days.

Many appear anxious to forget the anguish of the COVID months based on the signs of prosperity, at least in urban India. The poor, who are the most disregarded when there is a resource shortage, were typically the hardest hit. It is this socioeconomic sorrow that Anubhav Sinha seeks to convey in Bheed, augmenting it with caste strife. The movie is based on a true story in which police stopped migrant workers and their families at the Delhi-UP border while they were attempting to travel to their villages without any plans for food or lodging.

Bheed depicts a day in the life of Surya Singh, a police officer played by Rajmummar Rao who has been using a fake name to hide his caste identity. Although romancing Renu Sharma (Bhumi Pednekar), a doctor from an elite caste, he is also conscious of the possibility that her family would not accept him.

After learning of his caste, his Yadav superior (Ashutosh Rana) assigns him responsibility for a crucial checkpoint where migrants are to be stopped. What he thinks will be a distinction that will inspire envy in his colleague (Aditya Shrivastav), turns out to be a nightmare. He is unable to relate to the poor who are starving and in need, but he is also not able to act cruelly enough to sanitise men.

The majority of Anubhav Sinha's black-and-white film takes place in this one dusty location, where people are forced to wait for someone in charge to decide on their fate, whether they are anxious workers who are just waiting to get home, or an frustrating entitled rich woman (Dia Mirza).

A Brahmin security guard (Pankaj Kapur) who was accompanying a bus full of his people, including a sick man who was obviously infected with the coronavirus, expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. Other issues include rural unemployment, media sensationalism, the labelling of the dissenter as a Naxal, and, most importantly, the scourge of rampant casteism.

Surya, a former member of the underclass who is now a cop, is portrayed by Rajkummar Rao. There are so many complexities in how Anubhav and Raj together build this man who has only learned taking instructions and never issued them from the grassroots level. Now that he has the power, he must prove how he will use it. Rao excels at portraying vulnerability on-screen.

Bhumi Pednekar is amazing at what she does. Yet the storyline focuses more on her romantic urge towards Surya than what she goes through as the doctor. The two have a needless intimate scene. Their chemistry surely ends up appearing half-baked.

Pankaj Kapur does his best to convey the evil of this set-up in words. Although he is frequently stereotyped, he serves as the voice of the people standing in line at the boundary. Kritika Kamra, as a journalist, is promising and excellent. 

Unfortunately, Dia Mirza is given the least developed role as a divorcee who is outrunning her ex-husband to see their daughter and doesn't care if some people suffer and die in the process. 

Verdict:

Despite having everything, Bheed doesn't feel crowded or overly dramatic. The film, which was shot in black and white, is as real as it gets and will break your heart several times.