Honestly it was not the diction or the accent, so much as the delivery, and the strange emphasis she’d place on certain words. Which is bizarre, cause in interviews, she speaks perfectly fine. (Also I can’t stand her, which naturally prejudices me against everything she does, I confess)

Phoolan’s complicity in the Behmai massacre was part of folklore and contributes largely to the growth of her clout in the Chambal valley. She started being respected and feared after the massacre. Till then she actively farmed that incident to increase her repute. But after surrendering, that same incident became a liability and it suited her to say that she wasn’t even there! How believable is that?

The problem seems to be that her being a woman has greater weight to many commentator here than the fact that she was a cold blooded killer – murderer of innocents. The fact that she had been abused and raped does not ever justify such retaliation. Yet her version of events seems more convincing than that of a serious filmmaker – so much so that he becomes a misogynist because his version tallies more with her reputation rather than the sanitized version told to a credulous reporter in jail?

in a rather Bollywoodish Wronged Woman Seeks Revenge way (like that b-film Zakhmi Aurat). Surely she must have been power hungry and loved the loot too.

You hit the nail on the head. That is one of my key problems with the Bandit Queen. The list of demands she negotiated with the Indian govt are eye popping and what is more that she got them. (One of them included having her 10-year old brother getting a position in the state police when he turned 18!) It is a direct reflection of the extent of her power, rule of fear, and ruthlessness in ruling the Chambal Valley.

I promise this is my absolute last post on Phoolan Devi.

sp

Now, I am not a fan of Aishwarya Rai’s acting abilities or think Bride and Prejudice was a masterpeice, but I dont understand what your problem was with her english. Dont want to make any assumptions here, but was it the diction? accent?

She never denied the gang rape but she used the colloquial term “bahut mazaq kia”…they played with me…not a literal translation but which means rape. She always vehemently denied that she was present at the Behmai massacre of the upper caste men which was led by the gang leader and her lover, Vikram (I might be getting his name wrong). What she said was that when she described what the upper caste men had done to her to Vikram he was enraged and decided to seek revenge. But, she discouraged him as she thought no good would come of it. But, he insisted and the comment she made to Mala Sen was something to the effect “what can you do when men take it into their heads that their honor is at stake. They stop thinking with their brains and you can’t stop them.”

I think my point in all of this is that it was not a simple story of rape and revenge. It was extremely complex with lots of interesting intersections of patriarchy, upper caste politics, women’s status, the corruption of the police, her own strength and refusal to back down from the land dispute etc. But, she was a driving force not just pushed around by events.

None of this comes through in the movie.

Sonya

As a feminist, I reacted more strongly to the upper-caste abusive men storyline, I’ll admit. It’s powerful, and it does represent, in a way, the experience of a lot of women. But if it’s a fabrication, it’s a fabrication, and Shekhar Kapur should not have presented it as a True Story.