Bollywood earns Bandit King's ire

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">KOLKATA: Threats by an angry ex-husband and dreaded dacoit, a ''couldn''t care less'' rebuttal by a gutsy director shooting in the rugged terrains of Chambal and a bandit queen playing her real life role -- high drama as the plot thickens in the run-up to the release of </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">Wounded</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:=""> this October.</span><br /></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -3"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="28.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" e6e6e6=""> <div class="Normal"><#img src="791818-open/images/791830.jpg" alt="791818-open/images/791830.jpg" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" e6e6e6=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Seema Parihar, an undertrial in 15 cases of murder, arson and kidnap plays the main lead in </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">Wounded</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">.</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Qualifying for the record books as the first movie in the world to feature a real life character, debutant director Krishna Misra''s film has all the ingredients of a thriller, both on and off screen.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Chambal''s notorious woman dacoit Seema Parihar, an undertrial in 15 cases of murder, arson and kidnap, who shot for the movie on bail from the Etawah Central Jail in Uttar Pradesh, has irked her ex-husband Nirbhay Gujjar, current ruler of the valley of terror with a bounty of Rs 2.5 lakh on his head.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The reason - the movie shows Parihar as having married twice, the second time to Lalaram, and a dacoit of her father''s age who kidnapped her, turned her into a dreaded criminal and later fathered her son, now five years old.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Enraged, Gujjar issued press statements from his Chambal hideout saying if the movie was released with its current content, he would turn hundreds of villages into cremation grounds, a threat that has prompted Misra to consider seeking police protection before and during the release.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"I married twice in temples and that''s a fact.The movie is autobiographical and I am the one who would either corroborate or deny its contents," says Parihar, back in jail after weeks of shooting in Chambal and promoting the movie in Kolkata and Mumbai. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">But Gujjar is furious. "I took to the gun 25 years back just for the love of Seema. I married her in a temple in 1987 and Lalaram performed the ''kanyadan'' (a Hindu ritual performed by a father). It is sheer perversion to marry someone of a father''s stature."</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Next page: </span><a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/msid-791818,curpg-2.cms" style="" font-face:arialfont-size:10ptcolor:0066cc="">The masala angle</a><br /><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Gujjar says the story has been concocted to add ''masala'' to the movie. "It is a sheer lie that Seema married again. They are just making things up."</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Misra and Parihar are undeterred. "After I took up this subject and began shooting in Chambal at odd hours, I have known no fear. Gujjar''s threats will not cow me. Nobody can stop me from recounting reality," Misra asserts.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"When Seema has conceded to marrying twice, both times in temples, and bearing a child by second husband Lalaram, whose version should I believe?" he asks.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The English-Hindi bilingual </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">Wounded</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">, currently on the editing table and due for a Dussehra release, gives a real life account of Parihar''s kidnapping from Behain village in the Chambal vicinity, her first marriage to Gujjar and then to Lalaram, who was later brutally killed by her own brother-in-law Mahabharat Singh.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Through the course of the two-and-a-half hour film, Misra narrates the feeling of hurt and betrayal that Parihar nursed all on her own as a young girl amidst hardened criminals. Like Phoolan Devi, Parihar wants to be in politics when the ''time is ripe''.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"I know there are hundreds of hurdles for someone like me to enter the mainstream. Look at what happened to Phoolan. But on the other hand, when has life been easy for a dacoit?"</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Parihar might take to acting if the audiences like her performance. She might consider entering politics also with all major political parties making a beeline to take her in.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The notorious woman dacoit, whose name instils fear even now among Chambal gangs, says she felt the need to tell the world what life meant for women taking to crime either as a last resort or out of compulsion.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Encompassing 18 years of her eventful life from a 13-year-old when she was kidnapped by Lalaram and Kusma Nain to her surrender in November 2000, the movie also has Kanhaiya Kaitvas and Manohar Teli from the National School of Drama in the lead.</span></div> </div>