Gandhari review: Taapsee Pannu’s thriller is too dramatic to work

Human trafficking, a grim reality of our present time, has become a favourite theme for Bollywood. After Mardaani and Delhi Crime Season 2, Netflix’s new film Gandhari, featuring Taapsee Pannu, delves into the same theme. Written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Devashish Makhija, Gandhari has Pannu playing a blind mother in search of her missing daughter in a fictitious town in Bengal. While looking for her daughter, she stumbles upon a larger network of child trafficking. And while the premise of Gandhari is very real and thus makes for an engaging thriller, in reality, the film’s execution makes it falter ever so often.

What’s the story of Gandhari

Bani (Pannu), Gopal (Ishwak Singh) and their daughter set out from their home for a summer vacation somewhere in West Bengal. As the train halts at Joypura, a small town in the state, their daughter gets kidnapped at a crowded station. Bani attempts to stop the kidnapper, running through a crowded station, but gets hit by a steel rod and goes blind.

Gopal and Bani lodge a complaint at the local police station; however, after days of waiting at the thana for some leads, they decide to stay back in the town to find their daughter. For Bani, it is an uphill task initially, having to know and acclimatise herself to new city and surroundings and become a part of the crowd, to get information about her daughter.

Gopal meanwhile takes up a job at the local toll booth, hoping to get a trace of his daughter.

While the distressed couple try their best to look for their daughter, Kabir (Jatin Sarna), a special investigative officer, comes to Joypura to investigate the case of missing children.

As the investigation deepens, an unsettling truth emerges: virtually everyone is hiding something. Joypura is a town built on disguise, where residents seamlessly slip between personas and play-act their roles. Beneath these carefully crafted masks lies a dark, intricate web of secrets—invisible to the outside world, yet driving everything from the shadows. Everyone appears suspicious, from the NGO head (Swastika Mukherjee) to the friendly neighbour (Chhaya Kadam) to the local cops- all seem to be hiding something and even reporting to Bhaiji (Prashant Narayan), who remains in the shadows.

What works and what does not

If Kanika Dhillon had set out to make a film on a heroine fighting a lonely battle against a powerful nexus, Gandhari does a fairly decent job of serving that narrative. Taapsee Pannu plays a lone warrior who will go to any lengths to find her daughter- even play act to be blind, just to avoid being spotted. While the screenplay gives ample opportunity to Taapsee Pannu to showcase her talent as an actor, the story and logic take a back seat.

While the film shows Bani hunting for clues and going into uncharted and dangerous territories in order to find her daughter, in reality, clues come to Bani. Twists in the narrative are manufactured, and writers do not attempt to make the story logical and plausible.

Actors like Ishwak Singh, Mita Vashisht, and Swastika Mukherjee. Chhaya Kadam are all wasted in a poorly written story. So much of the narrative is in flashback, and the twists in the tale are plain random.

I also hate the cultural appropriation that Bollywood indulges in when portraying a specific community. Once it is established that the story is based in Bengal, one doesn't have to forcefully add Bengali words in Hindi dialogues. Or use an extra ‘O’ in all words. Or make the community worship the occult just to make them appear dark and mysterious.

A portion of the film has the entire town, dressed in disguise, worshipping a Chaumukhi Ma. The scene is near the climax and has key characters dressed in masks and paint just to blend into the crowd. So unnecessary and so cringe- it adds nothing to the narrative.

Final Verdict

Watching Gandhari is a deeply frustrating exercise. It takes up a theme that has already been talked about it films and series before, adds a bit of Kahaani flavour with Bengal serving as a backdrop while a mother goes around looking for her missing daughter, adds pointless twists that do not help the narrative and ultimately makes the film overdramatic.

It is a pity that the film has Devasish Makhija as a director who has in the past made brilliant films like Ajji and Bhonsle. So many of the film’s subplots have loose ends, and so much is left unexplained. In the end, it is one woman show- fighting the odds, solving a murky case- all alone.

Gandhaari is streaming on Netflix.