Based on true events, Bastar – A Naxal Story follows the story of an army officer who leads a mission to eradicate the Maoists responsible for the massacre of a military troop. The story here fails to leave an impact(and I promise, I did watch it with an open mind) even from a writing stand point and that had a lot to do with the conflict that it was trying to address. The Naxalite conflict is much more complex than it is made out to be, and while the argument presented here does hold ground, it may not paint the entire picture. Again, the story could have been a personalized one too if it chose to, something that I had mentioned for The Kerala Story too, but the moment you start painting the narrative with fixed ideologies as opposed to evenly balancing the narrative, you will more often than not falter. And should you still choose to do it, then fill it with so much detailing that it would document the case just like the makers did with the brilliant film Article 370 which should honestly be a case study. Unfortunately, the demarcation of black and white is quite distinct here wherein the screenplay of 125 minutes, fails to address the ‘grey’! 

The drama here, much like the narrative structure of The Kerala Story opens with two separate timelines, with one strictly focused on the court case while the other traces the set of incidents transpiring on either side of the gruesome attack on the military that resulted in several deaths. I felt that this was a more structured opening(to the film’s credit) as opposed to The Kerala Story that had three timelines unfolding in parallel. So you are introduced to all the principal characters, and even before the conflict is established, I could see that most characters are just cardboard cutouts, coated in either of the two binary colours that do not evoke any kind of emotional sentiment in you. This applies even as a man, a relative of one of the characters is hacked to death in the most gruesome way possible by the leader of the Maoist group(who is given a look inspired by Che Guevara) because the former wished to build a school and a road for children in the village. This incident is quite shocking but the underlying conflict is just so weak that the impact of the drama is only reduced to the events of brutality shown onscreen, as opposed to a more rounded impact. 

The proceedings lack the bite because the writers are satisfied with the conflict scratching the surface while never quite taking it deep. In between, there is a character talking about controlling the narrative through various mediums that included ‘Bollywood’, and that made me wonder if this film was a meta-reference for itself? Again, at no point was there any documentation of the claims that were simply rolled out whereas, films like these should ideally thrive on the detailing and documentation even from the stand point of the authorities(the year where the film set in is 2010). 

As the drama unfolds further, it continues to lack coherence which was such a shame because the drama did show a little promise at the halfway mark with the entire sequence of events leading to the actual attack. But again, the emotions just don’t hit you because the stakes are quite low with respect to the characterization, wherein most characters are one-dimensional and true to their traits. The politics around the actual Naxalite movement is absolutely not touched upon and hence, there was a disconnect for me in a huge manner. The events leading up to the final act are quite abrupt and lack logic(how could a character sneak out of a car surrounded by Maoists, and escape?), while the final act is non-existential and far too simplistic and convenient. Overall, the screenplay needed some depth for it to work as opposed to just showcasing the shock factor in the narrative.