Based on a true story, Phoolan takes place in central India in 1979 and depicts a harrowing 48-hours in the life of Phoolan Devi (Sneha Kumari), the most famous outlaw in Indian history, targeted for committing Robin Hood-like robberies of higher-caste villages and punishing those who raped her.
Phoolan Benefits From Narrowing Its Biopic Focus
Rather than take on a misguidedly ambitious approach and attempt to cover the all-too-short 37 years of Phoolan Devi's life, writer-director Richie Mehta intelligently centers his film around a concentrated period of asymmetric chaos that perfectly reflects the systemic injustice she faced. What better way to quickly orient viewers unfamiliar with her life and struggles than kicking a movie off with thousands of armed military personnel invading a tiny village in pursuit of an adolescent? What is it about this girl that demands such extensive military intervention? How could anyone, let alone a 17-year-old with no military training, even get close to surviving such a conflict?
After somewhat jarringly dropping audiences into the siege with little context, Mehta answers these questions by intermittently populating his film with compact, tightly-constructed flashbacks that offer glimpses into Phoolan Devi’s backstory. Again, the filmmaker does not aim, nor, in turn, accomplish, to capture the breadth (or depth) of her role as a pivotal figure in Indian history. (Those seeking such insights would be better suited reading her autobiography, or numerous other works about her.) Instead, he offers just enough in flashbacks to flesh out Phoolan’s fiery, outspoken spirit, her extensive traumatic history, and her eventual breaking ascent to earning the media nickname ‘Bandit Queen.’
Phoolan Lacks The Intensity Of A Great Siege Movie
By structuring the film around a 48-hour siege, Mehta leans heavily into the action genre. The bulk of the runtime follows Phoolan Devi and her two allies as they hide in buildings, dive out of the way of bullets, and sprint away from military personnel determined to kill her.
While understandably not engineering the action to thrill audiences, given the density of the subject matter, there is something lacking in the film’s ability to make viewers feel the tension, discomfort, and razor-thin line between life and death that Phoolan herself felt. The geography of the village is never quite clear, the shootout choreography is often stilted, and the action is neither cathartic enough nor gritty and grounded enough to warrant its sizable role in the movie.
While respectfully telling Phoolan Devi’s story and honoring her lasting impact on gender dynamics in India, Phoolan holds broader relevance beyond its titular hero.
The film seldom sells the immense asymmetry between Phoolan and the military personnel, and loses much of its intensity by allocating so much time to the bumbling, often incompetent army. Other siege movies like Alex Garland’s Warfare or John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 work as well as they do because the underdog heroes are given all the attention, while the invaders hardly get names, let alone dialogue. Phoolan missteps in this regard, taking the audience too frequently away from its titular character’s perspective and toward rather uninteresting antagonists whose mere presence on-screen detracts from immersion in Phoolan’s battle.
Anchoring the film with a ferocious breakout turn is Sneha Kumari, who should go on to do great things following the release of Phoolan. Kumari is simply superb, taking on the role of an important figure with boldness and sensitivity.
In the more action-heavy scenes, she proves more than capable of realistically playing a 17-year-old who an entire army would be deployed to kill, but it is in the flashback sequences that the Indian actress truly thrives. A flashback early in the film depicts Phoolan not suffering fools, as she is rudely discouraged from getting water from a well in her village due to perceptions that she is “dirty.” Rather than passively submit to defeat, she goes on the offensive and demonstrates that she is not to be messed with – nor are women in general.
Kumari excels in not making an instinctively aggressive character out of Phoolan Devi. Instead, she plays her as a young woman who simply wishes to be left alone and unbothered, by a world that continues to bother her. She doesn’t invite conflict or violence or sexual exploitation, but all three find her nonetheless, thus shining a spotlight on an inspirationally blistering personality that emerges to fight back against those who wrong her.
Phoolan’s Themes Are Relevant Far Beyond 1970s India
While respectfully telling Phoolan Devi’s story and honoring her lasting impact on gender dynamics in India, Phoolan holds broader relevance beyond its titular hero. Despite taking place at a very specific place and time, there is something disturbingly universal and prescient about Mehta’s film, its championing of gender inequality, and the fruitfulness of embarking on David and Goliath battles that seem to have no hope of victory.
As the great period pieces do, Phoolan triumphs as both a retelling of the past and a conversation with the present. Those unfamiliar with the remarkable story of Phoolan Devi should urgently seek on the new film for what it has to say about her journey and its lasting impact decades later, while those more familiar will likely appreciate following a distressing 48-hour period in her life that succinctly captures the odds repeatedly stacking against her.
Phoolan premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
Release Date
September 16, 2026
Runtime
113 minutes
Director
Richie Mehta
Writers
Richie Mehta
Producers
Kishor Arora, Shareen Mantri Kedia, Kanwal Kohli, Richie Mehta
Cast
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Sneha Kumari
Phoolan Devi
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English (US) ·