‘Bheed’ Collects $0.24 Million In Three Days

Anubhav Sinha’s Bheed is an important film on the plight of migrant labourers amid the chaos that hit India during the pandemic outbreak. Starring Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Pankaj Kapur and Ashutosh Rana in lead roles, the film has made a weekend collection of $2,42,000.

Filmmaker Sinha (of Thappad and Article 15 fame) has also co-produced the film that made an opening collection of $52000 and earned $75000 on the second day – Saturday March 25. At $78,905, the Sunday collections were no better.

Bheed traces the struggles of migrant workers who were suddenly out of work when the pandemic-induced lockdown struck India in 2020. The film highlights the plight of the poor at the time, and is a real portrayal of the problems they faced. Rao and Rana play cops in the film while Pednekar is a doctor and Kapur is a village man.

Most of the salaried people managed to sail through the pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020, even after many lost their jobs. It was the poorest of the poor that suffered the worst. With factories and companies shut down for months, none of the daily wage labourers had any means to earn a living. When they decided to return to their hometowns, they faced troubles that were not limited to the logistics of complete shutdown of all public transport.

Bheed shows the scenario at the border of a town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and portrays it in a matter-of-fact manner. The film highlights the plight of the migrant workers, but does not point fingers. It does not exactly blame the government for mismanagement and spreads the responsibility to individuals (who may not necessarily be with the government). By doing so, the film also underlines the inherent social evils of casteism and power dynamics in the society.

The film is about the perils of the lockdown, but the filmmaker does not forget the reality of casteism that continues to plague parts of the Indian society. Be it cops taking orders from a senior officer or a union leader negotiating with the cops, each character is aware of the power dynamics that originates in caste. Rao and Kapur play angry men from two ends of the spectrum. Rao is a cop (position of power) who comes from a “lower caste” while Kapur is a daily wage labourer hailing from an “upper caste”. Both brilliant actors have brought the anger to the fore in both their individual character arcs, as well as in scenes that define the dynamics between them.

In a social media post, director Sinha acknowleged getting low box office numbers for the film. He thanked fans, and critics for their rave reviews as well as the good response to Bheed. “Why is it that the same love is yet to be seen at the box office? Waiting for your love in the movie theatres,” he wrote in Hindi.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood film John Wick Chapter 4 registered decent scores at the box office in India. Keanu Reeves’ film earned $73.5 million in the US while it collected $3.2 million in India in four days. The film released in four languages in India including Hindi, Tamil, English and Telugu. It made an opening collection of $3,04,000 in India and the collections saw a steep rise on the second to $0.79 million. The action film earned a little more than $1 million each on the third day and the fourth day.

Last week’s Hindi release – Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway – grossed $2.4 million worldwide in seven days since it released on March 17. In India alone, Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway collected $1.3 million. It is directed by Ashima Chibber.