Bandit Queen Film Analysis

National identity, that sense of cohesion on a national scale as a unified whole, given to its people through culture, language, tradition; and of course varying depending on the different echelons of society within a nation. In the case of country India these boundaries are set rather firmly in light of the social stratification known as the caste system. Caste in its simplest form being a system of social ranking that is predetermined to one’s birth. In the film Bandit Queen, this is called into question, and if one were to critique the film in relation to this pieces outline, it would seem that rather than giving one a sense of any one dominant construction of national identity it opposingly, due to this form of social structure, gives the viewer a sense the countries lack of an explicit one. But then again, perhaps it is our own western prejudice to think of a national identity as a unified whole rather than an assimilation of many subgroups of identities within a nation. As stated by Dr. Paul Readman of King’s College London, “—in some ways, I think the question, ‘Do we need a national identity?’, is based on a false premise. The false

Poof enough in the actual viewing of the feature, but more abruptly and to the point in it’s opening statement, “Animals, drums, illiterates, low castes and women are worthy of being beaten” (Kapur, 1994) This being said, one can clearly see that the divisions set in the film are of a historical nature and are rooted strongly in both the nations culture and tradition, the introductory passage being a quote from the “Manu Smriti” a book of Hindu religious scriptures. Such set in stone ideas surrounding one’s economic position is a heavy subject matter to undertake given the vast populous of India. However the film handles it delicately and quite elegantly for that matter as perhaps best put in the Encyclopaedia of Indian