The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 30

THE GUARDIAN Thursday February 16 1995 A controversial story of revenge in Bandit Queen and the Oscar-nominated ijf 1 Derek Malcolm Though often beautifully shot by Ashok Mehta, it is not always easy to watch. Phoolan, a tormented child bride at 1 1 and a bandit in her teens, was raped for her temerity and dragged naked into the village square by the higher caste men she had "insulted disputed revenge the Behmai Massacre which killed 30 men and eventually brought down the government of her state is also shot with chilling realism. Kapur's one concession is to lift her romance with a fellow bandit into the realms of popular filmmaking, though Phoolan's own prison diaries, upon which the film is based, are similarly starry eyed about the relationship. But what makes the film more than either a grim tale of exploitation or a ANMTQUHN Dir Shekhar Kapur With Seema Biswas Nirmal Pamdey 119 mins. cert 18 Nationwide release HE POPULAR idea that "Indian films are either I I long, daft and full of I I songs and dances or art I I movies ofslow pace and LJ interminable length dies hard.

There's a grain of truth in it but that's likely to be Time well spent Jonathan Romney exploded by Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen. No Indian film since Salaam Bombay has received as much international attention as this extraordinary story of Phoolan Devi, the country's most celebrated outlaw who surrendered to the police on her own terms, applauded by thou sands as the Goddess of Flow ers a kind of female Robin Hood. But unlike Mira Nair's od-yssey about the street boys of TMSHMMMANKI rip-roaring action adven tureis the performance of Seema Biswas as Phoolan. This is a portrait of great sensitivity and considerable power, forged by a friendship with Phoolan, who was not the Amazonian beauty of press reports but a tiny, semi-literate woman who won her battle with fate the hard way. Kapur's chief triumph lies in his casting of this actress and it gives a secure centre to a film which, had it Dir Frank Darabont With Tim Robbins.

Morgan Freeman (43 mins cerf 15 Odeon Leicester Sq RUOVARO KIPLING THI JUNGLE What makes the more than a rip-roaring action-adventure is the performance of Seema CSswas (above) Dir. Stephen Sotnmers With Jason Scott Lee, Gary Elwes 1 12 mins, cert PG. London release LACKBKAUTY Dir Caroline Thompson With Sean Bean. David Thewlis 88 mins. cert nationwide Shaushank Penitentiarv.

as hard cued con Red (Morgan Freeman) tells him. Keryone has Andy down as a cert to break down the mi mite he sees his cell, but he shows a persistent cool that has everyone baffled Rod "the guy who can get it for you' soon takes him under his wing and provides him with the cheesecake posters (Rita Hay worth. Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch) that measure the pass ing of decades. Al heart, this is a buddy movie, and can't always keep its sentimentality quite buttoned up under those rough grey fatigues But the occasional tweak of pathos is a necessary relief from the brutality and austerity that dominate the mood for much of the time If this is a feel good movie and by the end it certainly is then at least it challenges us to dig deep for those good feelings when everything inside those mausoleum walls is nn relievedly harsh and grey. Dara boot's script based on a Stephen King story maintains a healthy level of bitter humour, largely in Ron bins's progress as a righteous man who learns that the way to survive is tobealittleless righteous from time totinie.

Robbins is excellent those labrador jowls were never more art-worn but the star turn is Freeman, who gives a standard hard case with a heart role an almighty injection of gra vitas and sh wit THE SHAWSHANK Redemption is a strange anachronism a prison movie that doesn't feature Jean Claude Van Damme high-kicking his way through serried ranks of laser guns It's a bold enterprise tot) a film about long term imprisonment that takes its time toconvey to you what the slow crawl of a lifer's existence mighl feel like Director Frank Dara bont squeezes 20 years, from 1H4H to 17. into nearly two-ancl a half hours; miraculously, you don't come out feeling as if you've donea week in solitary. In fact, it's a thoroughly gripping filmand pretty refreshing too. consid eringthat it manages to rework every slammer-pic cliche you've ever seen. All the old lags are on parade the gentle doyen with a pet raven in his pocket, the artful fixer, the crooked governor, the predatory "sister" the shower (Although he's not actually gay.

the film takes pains to point out. In fact, no one in this prison seems to be. I guess the fort ies were innocent times.) Tim Rohbins plays Andy Dufresne, a hapless banker handed two life sentences after his wife and her lover are murdered. He's innocent, of course, but then everyone's innocent in Dir George Miller With Keith Carradine 94 mins. cert U.

nationwide HOtVMATMMONV Dir Leonard Nimoy. With Patricia Arquette 93 mins. cert PG Nationwide ASTIR, PUSSYCAT! Kill! KILL! Dir Russ Meyer WilhTuraSatana. Hap 84 nvns certl 8 NFT been total fie tion. might have been thought too melodramatic to be true.

Bandit Queen's length is a small problem but it has a long story to tell and seldom falters Besides, two hours is often par for the course these days. Far from embellishing the story of Phoolan. Kapur has played it straight and done so with real film-making skill. It is the first Indian film for years to do what Salaam Bombay did in the international marketplace. And it deserves the same success for its boldness, its criticism of its own country and its insistence that what it says, underneath its story, is important for women everywhere.

Bombay. Bandit Queen is likely to remain em- broiled in controversy, unable to reach the screen in India itself. This is because Kapur, who was financed by Channel 4, has not sought to make either a romantic melo drama or an art movie out of he newspaper headlines and popular legends. Instead he has broadened them into a powerful parable about India itself a democracy where many women still live in feudal cir cumstancesand one diminutive, low caste child bride somehow threw off her chains and became more power ful than most of the men around her. The film doesn't mince words.

Deepa Merita With Bridget Fonda Jessica Tandy 94 mins. cen PG. nationwide OSAKA STORY: A DOCUMENTARY On Toichi Nakata 75 nuns no enrt ICA.