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Movie Review: Paan Singh Tomaar

This movie is a flashback of a famous dacoit giving an interview to a press reporter. Based on a true story, the dacoit recollects his days of being a world famous athlete (who held the national record in Steeple Chase – 3,200m hurdle race) and led a quiet, peaceful life which everybody dreams off.
Family dispute over ancestral property and indifference of the governmental agencies forced this person to become an outlaw and avenge himself.
Acting is superb. We can see the main actor graduate from being a naïve fresh army recruit to a dacoit with a large team who is audacious enough to cross 3 states in order to kidnap a politician on the eve of the elections. Paan Singh shows that life of an Dacoit is far from glamorous. One is separated from the family, law enforcement agencies are always chasing you, sleep on the floor, eat whatever one can gather from the forest, sleep on the floor. Money might be good, but even your kins and friends constantly conspire against you.
It also sends out a strong underlying message: 1/3 of the country is dominated by one Naxal or the other. These people are just like who and me. It’s just the bad governance that destroyed all their dreams, hopes of living a respectable family life.