Our take
With an urgent subject and plenty of that trademark Netflix polish, Bhakshak is nothing if not watchable and consistently engaging. However, for all of its motivated performances and high production values, there actually doesn’t seem to be much that happens in the film by way of investigation or character development. Much of the plot seems to progress solely on inertia, or through conversations that only ever repeat the film’s themes. And with every new, intense scene of young girls being threatened or hurt at the hands of abusive men, it becomes harder to understand what these scenes are trying to tell us, especially when they keep the victims as voiceless as they are from the beginning.
Streaming arrival
The story
A struggling local journalist begins a dogged investigation into harrowing cases of abuse being covered up at a shelter for young girls.
A journalist fights to expose the rampant abuse taking place at a girls' shelter.
The most important idea that Bhakshak communicates isn't exactly novel, but it's one that always feels pointed whenever it's raised in a film like this. It's that law enforcement, government agencies, and other entities that have the power to do something about widespread violence and injustice often find themselves with their hands tied—because of affiliations with the very same people responsible for these injustices. This admittedly isn't explored with that much depth in the film, and the revelation of this reality isn't as horrific as it ought to be, but it's something that deserves to be reiterated in plenty of movies.
Dear movies, you do not need to end with a three-minute direct-to-camera summary of what you were about.
Who picked it
Emil Hofileña is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. He also writes as a theater critic, with work published in Rogue and Out of Print, among others. He’s probably crying over a movie or an episode as we speak.
