''Bhakshak'' () is a 2024 Indian Hindi language

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

film based on the

Muzaffarpur shelter case The Muzaffarpur shelter case refers to a shelter home that ran under a non-governmental organization called "''Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti''" at Muzaffarpur, Bihar, where cases of sexual abuse, rape and torture were reported. In a medical ex ...

. It is directed by Pulkit and produced by

Gauri Khan Gauri Shah Rukh Khan (''née'' Chhibber; born 8 October 1970) is an Indian film producer and fashion designer who works in Hindi films and the designing industry. She has produced films including ''Main Hoon Na'', ''Om Shanti Om'','' RaOne'' ...

and Gaurav Verma under banner

Red Chillies Entertainment Red Chillies Entertainments Private Limited, doing business as Red Chillies Entertainment; abbreviated as RCE is an Indian entertainment company established by actor Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan in 2002. It was transformed from the d ...

, the film stars

Bhumi Pednekar Bhumi Pednekar ( born 18 July 1989) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Known for her portrayals of headstrong small-town women, she is the recipient of several awards, including three Filmfare Awards. After working as an assistant ...

, Sanjay Mishra,

Aditya Srivastava Aditya Srivastava is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and theatre. He is best known for his role as Senior Inspector Abhijeet in India's longest-running television police procedural ''C.I.D. (Indian TV series), C.I.D.'' He ...

and

Sai Tamhankar Sai Tamhankar (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, əiː t̪aːmɦəɳkəɾ born 25 June 1986) is an Indian film and television actress known for her work primarily in Marathi language, Marathi, as well as in Hindi language, Hindi films. She h ...

. It premiered on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 9 February 2024.

Plot

The story of Vaishali, a journalist, who uncovers a dark secret at a shelter home in Munawwarpur, Bihar. She learns about young girls being abused there. Vaishali faces many obstacles as she tries to expose the truth, including threats to her family. With the help of a courageous girl named Sudha and a supportive police officer named SS Jasmeet Kaur, Vaishali fights against the powerful people involved in the abuse. Eventually, justice prevails, and the perpetrators are brought to light. The film sheds light on the importance of standing up against injustice and fighting for what's right.

Cast

as Vaishali Singh * Sanjay Mishra as Baskar Sinha *

as Bansi Sahu *

as SSP Jasmeet Kaur * Surya Sharma as Arvind Singh * Durgesh Kumar as Guptaji *

Chittaranjan Tripathy Chittaranjan Tripathy (born in 1971) is an Indian actor, director, writer and music director who predominantly works in Hindi and Odia films. He is best known for his role as ''Trivedi'' in the Netflix series Sacred Games. Early life and e ...

as Mithilesh Sinha * Tanisha Mehta as Sudha Kumari, Vaishali's friend *

Satyakam Anand Satyakam Anand (born 11 July 1977) is an Indian actor, known for working in Bollywood. He tried to get admission into National School of Drama for three years, but remained unsuccessful for different reasons. He made his debut with the film, Dva ...

as Sonu * Vibha Chibbar as Rajni Singh * Pravin Kumar Sisodia as Brijmohan Singh * Murari Kumar as Baccha Babu * Samta Sudiksha as Gudiya * Gulista Alija as Baby Rani * Shakti Sinha as Pappu Thekedar * Danish Iqbal as Suresh Singh * Pubali Sanyal as Mamta Singh * Farheen Khan as Seema Singh * Aditya Uppal as IG Sagar Pratap * Anurag as Prabhat Kumar * Brijbhushan Shukla as Party Worker * Prabhat Lehri as Inspector Daroga * Shammi Jaffery as Shobha Sahu * Anand Sharma as CM Jitesh Kumar * Anuj Mishra as Ssp Assistant * Ekram Khan as Prakash Sinha * Umesh Kumar Shukla as Radheshyam * Mahesh Chandra Deva as Seva grih doctor * Amit Sinha as Umesh Kumar * Ronak Pandey as Bhaskar's Son * Punita Awasthi as Bhaskar's Wife * Ankit Singh as Nafisa * Shiv Mohan as Novelty security guard * Dinesh Trivedi as Paan shop owner * Sunil Kanal as Dom Maharaj * Ajay Singh as Rajni Singh's Assistant * Preeti Shukla as Samaj Kalyan Ministry

Production

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

commenced in January 2022 and wrapped only 39 days in February 2022.

Music

The music of the film is composed by

Anurag Saikia Anurag Saikia (born in December 1988) is an Indian film score composer, music director, music producer and instrumentalist from Moran, Assam, India. He is one of the youngest composers to be awarded Rajat Kamal for Best Non-Feature Film Music D ...

and Anuj Garg. While lyrics written by Raj Shekhar and Anuj Garg.

Reception

Critical reception

Deepa Gahlot from ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' awarded the film 3/5 stars and wrote "''Bhakshak'' should create some awareness and maybe raise some compassion towards victims of abuse." ''

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

'' gave the film 3.5/5 stars and wrote "''Bhakshak'' is a no-nonsense gripping investigative thriller and rests on the powerful performances of Bhumi Pednekar, Sanjay Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. It also gives a nice tribute to the small-town journalists who often risk their lives while trying to break stories that matter." Renuka Vyavahare of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' gave a rating of 2.5/5 stars, but said, "Bhumi Pednekar is solid in this stilted social drama". ''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

'' Shubhra Gupta wrote, "The Bhumi Pednekar film is saddled with basic story-telling and zero nuance", giving it 2/5 stars.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, bhakshak films based on actual events Films about child abuse 2020s Hindi-language films 2024 crime thriller films 2024 drama films Hindi-language crime thriller films Indian crime thriller films 2024 films Netflix original films Indian direct-to-video films Red Chillies Entertainment films