Review: Bandar — ★★★★☆

Bandar is a genuinely uncomfortable film, in the way it's meant to be. Bobby Deol plays a fading TV star accused of assault with none of the swagger that's defined his recent villain run, and the collapse he plays is specific, physical, and hard to watch in the right way. This is a performance, not a star turn.

Anurag Kashyap later disowned the theatrical cut, saying it wasn't his film. That claim complicates the version actually in cinemas, and it shows: the pacing sags in places that feel like they're missing connective tissue, and a couple of subplots involving the supporting cast go nowhere. What survives the edit is still sharper and more committed than most of what released around it.

Four stars for a film that took real risks with an unlikeable protagonist and mostly earned them, held back only by evidence of a better cut that audiences never got to see. Worth seeking out on Zee5, less for the plot than for Deol doing something the industry hasn't asked of him in years.