On Wednesday, Red Chillies Entertainment released the trailer of their upcoming crime drama, Bhakshak starring Bhumi Pednekar. The story follows the journey of a dauntless journalist, Vaishali Singh set to expose the reality of a shelter-home and bring justice to the sexually abused girls.
The Real Case that inspired the movie
The movie takes its inspiration from true events that took place in Muzaffarpur Women’s Shelter Case of 2020. In May 2018, reports of repeated sexual abuse of the residents at a short stay home in Muzaffarpur, India, came to surface after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) undertook a social audit of shelter homes across Bihar for 2017. The audit report highlighted the sexual abuse of girls at the Muzaffarpur short stay home.
Later the medical board of Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in June confirmed the sexual abuse of majority of the girls of the ‘Balika Grih’. Brajesh Thakur, the main culprit in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, has been booked in another case after it was found that 11 women were missing from another shelter home his NGO ran. Of the 42 girls housed at Balika Grih, medical tests confirmed sexual assault on 34. While girls were allegedly forced to undergo abortion, one was reportedly murdered and buried on the shelter home campus.
Brajesh Thakur is the prime mastermind in Muzaffarpur shelter home case where 34 girls, aged between 7 and 17, were raped for months. Ten out of 11 accused were arrested, including Thakur and the then district child protection officer. Brajesh Thakur, the founder of the Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti NGO, who operated the shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, is currently serving a life sentence following his conviction by a Delhi court in 2020.
Bhakshak: Bhumi Pednekar’s quest to expose the corrupt men
Directed by Pulkit, and produced by Gauri Khan and Gaurav Verma, the film aims to weave a riveting tale about the plight of sexually abused minors through the lens of an investigative journalist, Vaishali.
The dialogue and cinematography is bound to leave the audience in absolute goosebumps. It begins with the main antagonist, Bansi Sahu portrayed by Aditya Srivastava telling one of the girls of the shelter-home the meaning of orphan, concluding that no one cares about whatever happens to them.
The trailer unfolds the story of Vaishali Singh, who bravely raises her voice against powerful and corrupt men involved in the abuse of young girls. It shows her relentless fight for justice against the corrupt administration. She is assisted by Bhaskar Sinha, portrayed by Sanjay Mishra, in her long battle against the perpetrators. Pednekar can be heard saying that none of the news channels wants to report such an incident. She also says that the government hasn’t done anything about the issue, despite being sent a report about it months ago, indicating corruption in the system.
The actress has commented: “Working on Bhakshak was quite challenging as it is based on a sensitive and hard-hitting topic. The movie asks questions at a deep level that is bound to shake one’s conscience. I hope the film ignites conversations that lead to a meaningful change. The film sheds light on the crimes against the children.” The trailer ends on a chilling note as Pednekar throws a question at the audience asking, whether we can still consider ourselves as humans or ‘bhakshak’ (predator). The movie also stars Sanjay Mishra, Sai Tamhankar and Aditya Srivastava in pivotal roles.
Shortly after its release, the King Khan of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan gave a shoutout to the nail-biting narrative through a tweet captioning: “A story of resilience that needs to be told.” Needless to say, the movie has created a buzz among netizens and is set to release directly on 9th February, only on Netflix.
Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/hWE6B3g6d5c?si=sdzC10bKiHWJqNxm
