Bhakshak

Bhakshak is a 2024 Indian Hindi language crime thriller film based on the Muzaffarpur shelter case. It is directed by Pulkit and produced by Gauri Khan and Gaurav Verma under banner Red Chillies Entertainment, the film stars Bhumi Pednekar, Sanjay Mishra, Aditya Srivastava and Sai Tamhankar. It premiered on Netflix 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

Bhumi Pednekar as Vaishali Singh
Sanjay Mishra as Baskar Sinha
Aditya Srivastava as Bansi Sahu
Sai Tamhankar as SSP Jasmeet Kaur
Surya Sharma as Arvind Singh
Durgesh Kumar as Guptaji
Chittaranjan Tripathy as Mithilesh Sinha
Tanisha Mehta as Sudha Kumari, Vaishali's friend
Satyakam Anand 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

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

Music

The music of the film is composed by
Anurag Saikia and Anuj Garg. While lyrics written by Raj Shekhar and Anuj Garg.

Reception

Critical reception

Deepa Gahlot from Rediff.com awarded the film 3/5 stars and wrote "Bhakshak should create some awareness and maybe raise some compassion towards victims of abuse." Bollywood Hungama 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 gave a rating of 2.5/5 stars, but said, "Bhumi Pednekar is solid in this stilted social drama". Indian Express Shubhra Gupta wrote, "The Bhumi Pednekar film is saddled with basic story-telling and zero nuance", giving it 2/5 stars.