Nirmal Pandey Movies
- 1999
- NR
Racially motivated violence begins to invade even the most peaceful communities in Train To Pakistan, a drama about the troubled years following India's independence. In 1947, Mano Majra, a small Punjab community along the border, has long known peaceful coexistence between the dominant Sikhs and the minority of Muslim citizens. That begins to change when word of political and ethnic tensions elsewhere in the country begins to infect the people of Mano Majra, with gang violence and forced Muslim emigration soon following. Based on a novel by Khushwant Singh, Train To Pakistan was directed by Pamela Rooks, who previously made Miss Beatty's Children and whose husband is Conrad Rooks, a noted director in his own right. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mohan Agashe, Nirmal Pandey, (more)
The theme of how power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of souls is explored in this drama from India. Veeram (Milind Gunaji) and his wife Rambhi (Shabana Azmi) are forced to leave their village and move to a larger city in search of work when a drought devastates the local farmland. At his new job, Veeram murders his foreman, a cruel and bigoted man who openly loathes people of Veeram's caste. It seems that the foreman had many enemies, because the police refuse to investigate the matter and Veeram finds himself rising up the ladder of local politics. But when Veeram renounces the use of violence against the people, he's assassinated, and Rambhi is elected to take his place. While she assumes leadership with good intentions, she soon displays a willingness to use her authority to brutalize others and is not above the use of violence to achieve her ends. Rambhi's increasingly corrupt rule reaches a turning point when her son demands to marry a Muslim, leading to public outcry and rioting in the streets. Godmother, which includes several musical numbers, was shown as part of the World Cinema program at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shabana Azmi, Milind Gunaji, (more)
- 1996
It's difficult to tell the girls from the boys in this off-beat, melodramatic East Indian love story. The story centers on a classically trained actor who has spent his entire life performing onstage as a woman, something that has carried over into his personal life. He is on the road one day when he meets a frightened young woman who was kidnapped just before her wedding day and sent off to become a prostitute. She fought her captors and escaped, but then suffered at the hands of three brutes on a beach. The drag queen offers to return her to her home, but only if she will disguise herself as a man. Thus an odd-couple is formed. As they make the long journey back to her village and endure a few adventures, the two find themselves falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Bandit Queen, based on the true story of legendary female warrior Phoolan Devi, is a confrontational epic that paints a far different picture of India from other arthouse productions. Devi (Seema Biswas) is married at age 11, abandoned by her husband when she resists his advances, and turned into a social outcast who, at one point, is gang-raped by the upper-caste men of one village. She later gets her revenge by organizing a massacre that leaves 20 villagers dead. Devi ultimately leads a band of latter-day Robin Hoods on bold raids against landowners in Central India during the late '70s and early '80s, often taking their spoils and redistributing them to poor tenant farmers. By the time she is arrested in 1983, Devi has become a folk hero, especially to the women who live in rural India's brutally patriarchal society. A full-fledged commercial production, handsomely produced and directed by talented Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (who emerged from the country's vaunted "Bollywood" system), Bandit Queen painfully exposes a controversial aspect of Indian culture, while providing a triumphant portrait of female empowerment. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seema Biswas, Nirmal Pandey, (more)
