New Delhi: A hostile or insubordinate attitude towards the existing authority forms the base of the word 'rebel'. Unfortunately, the same description goes for another word 'dacoit'. Tigmanshu Dhulia's forthcoming film 'Paan Singh Tomar' will try to define the thin line between a rebel and a dacoit but can this Irrfan Khan starrer be as real and thought provoking as Shekhar Kapoor's 'Bandit Queen'.
Though 'Bandit Queen' had western sense of aesthetics but the core of the film was completely Indian as the director focussed on the reasons behind the making of a dacoit.
More or less, the trend of dacoit films started with Raj Kapoor's 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai'. The idea was pretty clear, and that was to concentrate on the power of values embedded in the Indian social system. Dilip Kumar's 'Ganga Jamuna' also revolved around the same theme but a little transition started to happen with 'Mujhe Jeene Do'. For the first time, the idea of rebel took a shape. Very soon he went on to become the rebel icon, an image people had already accepted after 'Mother India'. A time when the West was struggling hard to recover from the economic depression and Nehru's social reforms had started to fetch results.
Then came the catch. If the rebel is the hero then who will play the villain. So, another character reared its head. A rebel without a cause and this new character couldn't be from outside the community. Finally, a dacoit emerged who was just a dacoit. Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan redefined the Hindi film heroes by being sheer romantic and angry young man. Salim-Javed clearly understood the situation and thus created characters with ambiguous moral values which the film writers of the later era started following. After all, more than a dozen hits in no time were bound to make followers.
Rustic looks of Sunny Deol and his volatile temperament attracted some daring filmmakers to cast him in dacoit roles. Some even gave him the surname like Yadav, but the films didn't work out, and the dacoit remained a dacoit, till 'Bandit Queen'.
Shekhar Kapoor, a truly international filmmaker, saw everything from a western lens; basically he tried to be objective, despite knowing that it will still appear like a revenge drama.
Since then, no serious film came on this concept. Santoshi's 'China Gate' and some other films fiddled with the topic but remained 'just a masala film' in their outlook.
18 years have gone by and Tigmanshu Dhulia has also developed a niche audience base. 'Haasil', 'Shagird', and 'Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster' try to portray love as the ultimate destination of life despite being crime stories. His characters gather power only to fall victim to the 'unconditional love' bug.
Now we can only hope to see 'Paan Singh Tomar' as a rebel with a strong cause than being a lovelorn dacoit. Of course, entertainment factor is there to consider but ideally a former athlete shouldn't turn into a dreaded criminal without a very strong and convincing reason.####
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