Dedh Bigha Zameen Review - An Honest Attempt At A Dishonest Story

Dedh Bigha Zameen Review: Pratik Gandhi and Khushali Kumar come together for Pulkit's directorial, Dedh Bigha Zameen, steaming on an OTT platform. Dowry is a damn old issue in our country, and you all remember how many times it has been depicted in our films. Back in 50s, the father of the bride used to remove his pagdi and keep it under his in-laws feet with that famous one line: "Mein apni izzat aapke kadmo me rakhta hu." Pulkit's Dedh Bigha Zameen doesn't have that scene, but considering it's coming in 2024, we can say it's that old and outdated. If you are starting your film with the decade-old dowry issue in 2024, then you have already lost half of my interest. Secondly, you forget that your film is not about that but is about a land scam, which is again an old issue but still relevant in rural parts of the country even today. The amalgamation of outdated conflict and a current, sensitive issue doesn't fit well with the structure of the film, and that's why it ends up being an honest attempt at a not-so-honest story.The film begins with Anil Singh (Pratik Gandhi) looking for the wedding of his sister, Neha (Prasanna Bisht), and being tricked into paying a high amount of dowry. More than tricked, I would say he was convinced by others and himself too. To arrange that money for the wedding, he has land to sell, which was bought by his father in 1987. However, when he goes to the broker, he learns that the local MLA has taken possession of his land and, therefore, he cannot sell it. All his dreams and promises of his sister's wedding are shattered in a moment, and then Anil decides to fight against them. His wife, Pooja (Khushali Kumar), stands with him with her suggestions in this difficult but important legal and political fight. Will Anil be able to get his land back?The film lost my interest in the first scene only. Anil is okay with the dowry system, and the girl also has no issues with it. Everything is so normal for a film set in the 2020s decade, when we all know that V. Shantaram had made a film against the Dowry System back in 1952. That's 7 decades before Dedh Bigha Zameen. And still, there is not an ounce of shame on any single character's face. The same Anil would later yell at his in-law and call them "keede of samaj," but he failed to realize that he was part of the same keede category in the first place. Why would I feel any sympathy for such a character who supports the dowry system? Why would my heart ache for such a girl if her planned marriage is in danger? That's why "dishonest story" is in the title. To create sympathy for a certain character, you have to show him in a good light. Dedh Bigha Zameen failed to do that. And after that, it was stuck to one point—how to generate bucks for dowry. Chuck that, buddy; your film is not about that. It's about land scams, so stick to it. Why waste time and screenplay both on a thing that isn't even part of your main context and doesn't even define it? Throughout the narrative, you see the protagonist being either too dumb or too courageous, when finding the middle of it would have been much better and more clever. For this messy tale, they took 100 minutes, and it felt like 150 minutes because of the tortoise-paced screenplay.Speaking of performances, Pratik Gandhi has done a lot better than his previous film on extramarital affairs. This was a ground-level role, so it needed that conviction. He gave it, even though the writer failed to provide him with the vehicle. You see, he is living in a normal house like any middle-class man, and he is talking about spending 45–50 lacs so easily. Bro didn't even have a bike or car; he was riding a small scooter, and yet he was talking about half-a-crore, like it was his college-time pocket money. So strange and so pathetic writing it was. The leading lady, Khushali Kumar, plays a nice part as his wife—an extremely supportive wife. Khushali has improved a lot from her previous works, and I would love to see her in such character-driven roles than the skin-show she did in a couple of her previous films. This new version of Khushali Kumar is definitely surprising, but this is what we call a "pleasant surprise." Mukesh Chhabra played a fine lawyer, Vinod Nahardih and Faisal Malik were decent, and the supporting cast was okay. Prasanna played such a fair and beautiful girl, and yet her brother had the audacity to explain her as a "Saavli" girl in the police station. The dialogue writer shouldn't have insulted this pretty girl like this. I mean, she was so cute. How can somebody call her Saavli and, more than anybody else, her own brother?Dedh Bigha Zameen is not a big budget film, so I'd skip talking about how below-average the production design was. The technical team hasn't done any better either. The cinematography was strictly okay, and the music was pretty decent. Don't think it needed any songs to explain the painful situation because we have all become so accustomed to it that we really hate those songs, making films even slower. Pulkit hasn't done any big blunder with his direction, but it's the script and its conviction that fail to provide him enough content. Not a single moment of the film looked displaced or disarranged, so his direction was on-point; it's the screenplay. The storytelling was fine, but the story wasn't. It's like he tried to earn money from a deserted land when even he knew that there were not enough ingredients inside it. A nice try from his side, though; not enough to be called a good film.