Bandar, Anurag Kashyap’s long-awaited crime thriller starring Bobby Deol, is finally in Indian theatres after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025. Written by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee — the duo behind Paatal Lok and Kohrra — and inspired by real events, this is a divisive, uncomfortable, and deeply necessary film about media trials, cancel culture, and what happens when a broken system gets its hands on a fragile man.
Bobby Deol plays Samar, a has-been pop star coasting on the fumes of a single hit from decades ago. He’s financially struggling, largely ignored by the industry, and not exactly a model citizen — constantly swiping and leching at women even while waiting for his own girlfriend on a date. Then one night the police arrive at his door. A woman he went out with has filed an FIR against him, and from that moment, his already fragile life completely collapses. What follows is part court procedural, part prison survival drama, and part searing commentary on a legal system that chews people up long before justice has a chance to do anything.
The stuff that doesn’t work
The CBFC has left its fingerprints all over Bandar in the most frustrating way possible. Selective profanity is muted throughout, constantly breaking the rhythm of scenes that genuinely need that raw, uninterrupted energy. The inconsistency is maddening — extreme violence passes through other films without issue, yet specific words get silenced here. In a film this committed to gritty realism, those interruptions genuinely hurt.
The other stumble is more contained. When Samar enters jail, he needs to align with one of the rival gangs just to survive — not just for protection, but to get fed. It’s a compelling setup that never quite delivers on its tension. The rival gang’s hostility reads more like mild irritation than genuine threat. If you’ve seen Criminal Justice or similar prison dramas where that alignment feels absolutely terrifying, you’ll notice the drop in stakes. Beyond that though, this is a minor complaint against an otherwise near-flawless film.
What Kashyap gets absolutely right
When Kashyap sets a film in Mumbai, it feels lived-in in a way very few filmmakers can match. Cinematographer Saiyed Shaaz Rizvi and production designer Prashant Bhatkar have built a jail that is genuinely oppressive — bodies packed on top of each other, filth everywhere, no room to breathe. The camera doesn’t look away and neither do you. The claustrophobia is real and it stays with you.
One of the film’s sharpest ideas is how Samar’s treatment shifts entirely depending on who’s watching. The police treat him like a clout ornament — shoving phones in his face, facetiming their families to show off their famous arrest. Inside jail he becomes a financial asset, tossed between gangs based on what he can provide monetarily. His innocence or guilt is completely irrelevant to everyone around him. Watching that realisation slowly extinguish the light in his eyes is quietly devastating.
The media trial commentary hits hardest. Kashyap draws from something that felt painfully recognisable in Indian media roughly six years ago — out-of-context headlines, social media frenzies, snap judgments handed down by ordinary people and authority figures alike before a single trial has commenced. Guilty until proven innocent. And even if innocence is eventually established, the damage is already done. The film captures that helplessness with real anger.
The casting of Bobby Deol is also quietly genius. He has spoken openly about his own dark years — sitting at home with no work, dealing with alcohol, too embarrassed to face his own children. And here he is playing a once-celebrated artist living on past glory, too proud for television, too broke to be selective. The parallel gives his performance a texture that simply can’t be manufactured.
Bobby Deol is extraordinary
There is a scene between Samar and his sister — played by Sanya Malhotra — that is the emotional core of the film. She is fighting exhausted on the outside to save him. He is trying desperately to hold himself together on the inside. He doesn’t. He breaks down completely, weeping, barely getting his words out, reduced to begging for enough money just to survive one more day. It is raw, unglamorous, and completely believable. This is the best performance of Bobby Deol’s career across nearly three decades in the industry, and it isn’t particularly close.
The ensemble around him matches his energy throughout. Jitendra Joshi is quietly excellent as a police officer navigating his own moral compromises. Indrajith Sukumaran brings genuine menace as the gang leader. Raj B. Shetty as a wild, philosophical fellow inmate is an unpredictable delight. Sapna Pabbi and Saba Azad round out the cast with subtle, committed work.
Is it worth watching?
Yes — especially if you appreciate cinema that refuses to make things comfortable. Unlike court dramas that wrap up their moral argument with clean conclusions, Bandar leaves you unsettled on purpose. There’s no tidy resolution and no clear villain to walk away blaming. Just a portrait of how cancel culture, media frenzy, and institutional failure can grind someone completely down — and a reminder that even being proven innocent doesn’t undo the damage that’s already been done.
Kashyap has said that all meaningful art has something real to say about the society we’re living in. Bandar has plenty to say. It just has the courage not to say it too neatly.
Rating: 4/5
Bandar is directed by Anurag Kashyap. Written by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee. Starring Bobby Deol, Sanya Malhotra, Indrajith Sukumaran, Raj B. Shetty, Jitendra Joshi, Sapna Pabbi, and Saba Azad.