Sonchiriya

1975, the Chambal valley. Man Singh's gang call themselves baaghi, rebels; they rob, raid villages and hide in the ravines. Word comes of gold that will change hands at a wedding and a raid is planned. They are ambushed; behind them is Gujjar, a special task force inspector. Fleeing, they meet a woman of the lowest caste who is being hunted by her own clan and who has with her a badly injured girl. Some of the gang want to pay for something they did in the past. Abhishek Chaubey directs and contributed to the screenplay. The cast includes Manoj Bajpayee, Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana and Ranvir Shorey. The genre is the dacoit western; there is an old tradition in Indian cinema built on the bandits of the Chambal, and this film joins it to caste. The matter at the centre is the transmission of guilt. The characters talk about paying for what they have done, and its relation to dharma as a religious concept is argued through the film. The woman's situation recalls Phoolan Devi and the film refers to her openly; the character called Phuliya stands apart inside the narrative. The dialogue was written in the local Bundelkhandi dialect, which required subtitles even in India. The election of 1975 and the Emergency sit in the background. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian westerns and hard films built on caste. Who it is not for: the violence is heavy, the language is difficult, and some scenes are incomplete without the historical context.