Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar is set in a fascinating world. An out-of-work actor Samar Mehra (Bobby Deol), 50, a shadow of his ‘90s screen-self, has to perform his one-hit wonder at tacky weddings to pay the bills. When he exits the airport and sees his more famous colleagues (cameos by Sunny Leone and husband Daniel Weber) getting ‘papped’, he takes out his phone and takes a selfie of his tired face, to humble-brag on social media.He’s behind on his EMIs; his domestic help, Shiva, hasn’t been paid in four months. Even as he carries a constant back pain, Samar is unapologetic about his carnal desires, dabbling in problematic pornography and scrolling through profiles of significantly younger women, as if to suggest a sexual preference. He’s also petty and territorial, something we find out during a conversation with girlfriend, Khushi (Saba Azad), when he expresses displeasure after she went out with a group of friends the night before. All in all, where protagonists are usually air-brushed, Samar is a grimy, authentic everyman, comfortably placed in his contradictions, unserious world-view and profound vanity.Hence, when he’s accused of raping a woman, everyone believes it almost instantly. When a female constable checks his phone to find dirty messages exchanged with the complainant, and his browsing history comprises pornographic websites, she looks judgementally towards him, convinced about the allegations.He refutes the allegations, maintains his innocence. But don’t they all? The cops, far from professional and convinced about his guilt, mistreat him. He’s not allowed to call his lawyer, forced to share a cell with bemused onlookers and roaches. Shiva is chased out of the police station, when he tries to bring Samar’s mandatory medication to him.Bobby Deol in a scene n ‘Bandar’. Photo: Screengrab from Youtube video/Zee TV Africa.Kashyap, who staged a similar scene inside the police station in Ugly (2014), is almost gleeful during this opening stretch. When the constables show up at Samar’s doorstep, there’s initially some confusion about the accused’s name being Samar or Samir? The confusion is later attributed to the autocorrect feature in a superior’s phone.Another constable accompanying them in the car, tells Samar how his wife is a big fan. When he video-calls her, she can’t seem to recognise Samar. These instances are consistent with Kashyap’s ability to mine absurdity and humour during the most trying situations.Written by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee, among creators of the most thoughtful cop dramas on OTT platforms, Bandar appears to want to investigate the real horror of a made-up sexual assault case. The case, seemingly borrowing from the real-life case of musician-actor Karan Oberoi in 2019, became an instance where the process itself became the punishment.Oberoi was put behind bars, and then eventually granted bail a month later. The complainant was later charged for filing a false FIR. This case came on the heels of the MeToo movement, where accounts of sexual assault/misconduct were coming out in hordes. One can imagine instances of this particular case being cited to delegitimise claims.Kashyap’s film is its strongest when he’s depicting the sensory ‘now’ of Samar’s jail experience. Shifted into a jail cell with dozens of undertrials as he waits for his bail hearing, Samar navigates the squalor of an Indian prison. Clearly belonging to an echelon of society, which is not used to such surroundings, the disbelief is still fresh. He doesn’t eat, he can’t sleep, he’s forced to learn the laws of the land – partitioned in coops, headed by strongmen. Lijo (Indrajit Sukumaran) and Bilal (Ankush Gedam) are among two such characters, who try to get Samar to join them.Smaller roles feature Aamir Aziz, Raj B. Shetty, Natesh Hegde, who, thanks to their feral intensity, look right at home behind bars. I particularly liked Sukant Goel, as Aatish, who claims to be innocent, trapped in a false case by the husband of a woman he was having an affair with. Goel is an excellent choice to play a rape accused, because he looks immensely capable of playing someone sincere, and play-acting sincere (thereby convincing his audience).Sapna Pabbi in a scene in ‘Bandar. Photo: Screengrab from Youtube video/Zee TV Africa.As Samar’s desperation and anxiety boil over, and take a physical toll on him, we’re told about the series of incidents between him and Gayatri (Sapna Pabbi) – the complainant – leading to his incarceration. Gayatri is shown as someone having endured childhood trauma (she would cut herself, we’re shown), hinted to be a masochist given her repeated tattoo appointments, and given little quirks in the manner she dresses, or recounts anecdotes from her childhood when she could move rocks merely by focusing on them.Gayatri has obsessive tendencies, which we’re told about for how she gets attached to Samar after one date, starting to show up at Samar’s apartment. He tries to let her down gently, feigning disinterest, blatantly lying, refusing to open the door when she shows up at his doorstep, and when she doesn’t catch on to any of the hints – he tells her to stay away from him, or he will call the cops.Sapna Pabbi in ‘Bandar’. Photo: Screengrab from Youtube video/Zee TV Africa.It’s credit to Sharma and Banerjee’s writing that neither Samar nor Gayatri ever entirely feel like a ‘hero’ or ‘villain’. Samar is not the perfect victim, given how he idly chats with her, sends her nudes, even though he never intends to see her. He refuses to have the hard conversation until it’s too late. Bobby Deol gives up every last bit of vanity to make Samar as douchey and reckless as possible.Pabbi is chilling as Gayatri, whose hurt and unravelling feel palpable. Pabbi’s performance comes a week after Inde Navarette’s clutter-breaking performance in Curry Barker’s Obsession, where her ‘clingy’ character is a subversive instrument in the director’s hands to comment on the violence behind a man’s wish. Kashyap, Sharma and Banerjee play it relatively straight, ending up echoing popular tropes of a ‘hysterical’ woman and ‘wronged’ man.Jitendra Joshi in ‘Bandar’. Photo: Screengrab from Youtube video/Zee TV Africa.Sharma and Banerjee’s screenplay, while gritty and diligent about the jail portions, is strangely incurious about the larger effect a ‘false case’ has on the conversation in society, where such incidents are overwhelmingly rigged against complainants.I think Bandar rather daringly wants to draw comparisons between the horrors faced by a sexual assault victim and someone falsely accused of a rape case. There are probable parallels about how both sets of people suffer by paying the price with their personal dignity in front of someone stronger, with more authority.Prison dramas, where an out-of-place underdog goes through a staggering transformation and becomes a ‘veteran’, is an arc we’ve seen across many stellar shows. Among supporting parts, it’s Jitendra Joshi, with an excellent scene in the opening stretch, who revisits the peaks of an improvised, comedic Kashyap scene. But none of the characters, except Samar, appear to have beyond a single dimension. Both Saba Azad and Sanya Malhotra, who plays Samar’s sister, Suhani, don’t seem to have interiority except for sharing Samar’s plight.Unfortunately, as much as Kashyap would like to end the film on an ambiguous note, it’s all clearly black and white here.Kashyap’s film is potent in the moment, but it seems to be lacking a comprehensive world-view. For example, it credits Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj – a notorious “men’s rights activist” known for peddling Islamophobic rhetoric, inflammatory and misogynistic misinformation – in the film.It’s a surprising and puzzling choice on the part of someone with the rigour of Anurag Kashyap, Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee. In the end, I couldn’t help but shake off the feeling that Bandar stares unflinchingly at one form of injustice, while looking away from the larger one.*Bandar is playing in theatres.