Rating : 4/5
Genre : Mystery
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Abhishek Chaubey
Cast : Manoj Bajpayee, Ranvir Shourie, Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana
Kid rating : PG-13
Sonchiriya’s story is situated in the ravines of Chambal valley, circa 1975 during the Indian Emergency. It is about a band of dacoits lead by their leader Man Singh (Manoj Bajpai). When Man Singh is put out of circulation by a police ambush, Vakil Singh (Ranvir Shourey) is elected leader, but some of the gang members gravitate towards Lakhan Singh (Sushant Singh Rajput). The split widens further when the band comes across a woman, Indumati Tomar (Bhumi Pednekar), who asks for their protection from her pursuers, and Vakil and Lakhna disagree on whether they should help her or not.
Sonchiriya is literally “golden bird”, an elusive, mythical creature. Here it is used to symbolize absolution for a past misdeed. Lakhna looks at protecting Indumati and getting her gravely injured younger sister (whom she lovingly calls her “Sonchiriya”) to a hospital as his absolution. The film thus centers around Lakhan Singh – the man, his morals and his mission. In one scene he justifies his choice musing that he can face the world, but cannot face himself if he does the the wrong thing. Rajput does a great job of portraying an “honorable” dacoit.
Sonchiriya spans a wide landscape. This is a story about the dakus, but it also encompasses in its fold many social ills: casteism, classism, poverty and patriarchy. In a scenes between two women – the dacoit Phulia and the Thakur woman Indumati – Phulia laughs at Indumati’s pretensions to belonging to a higher caste, saying that while men might belong to different castes, women are in a special caste by themselves – the lowest one, oppressed by every other caste.
What impressed me about Sonchiriya is its earnest storytelling. The film has many characters, but they all tie together to portray the struggle against oppression and corruption. Sonchiriya is a tale of rebels who have banded together against persecution, but it is also a story of a single good man, an underdog, and his quest to do the right thing, when the lines between right and wrong have blurred. The film has poignant moments when you really feel the desperation and abject misery of the characters. And then there’s the dark humor which masks the harsh reality underneath.
All the actors are absolutely fabulous, and make this intense, gripping film as gorgeous as it is. Kudos also to director Chaubey for making this beautifully atmospheric, homegrown Western.
