I am in a dilemma to rate Bhakshak. Call it a Bhumi Pednekar show. The context of this film is dark and disturbing. It urges us to be socially responsible in place of zero emotions implanted by social media. We flip through the contents of any sort but never pause or take action. As per the ending monologue of the small-town journalist Vaishali Singh (Bhumi Pednekar), we really don’t care about things offline. Read it as a strong statement Bhakshak tries to endorse.

Bhakshak means predator. Pulkit, a debutant director touches upon a real incident of child sexual abuse at a Girls Shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. In the film, the place is called Munnawarpur. Pulkit says Bhakshak’s script co-written by his wife Jyotsana Nath represents many such incidents happening around the globe. His protagonist Vaishali Singh is an independent journalist struggling to survive with her local news channel supported by her only co-worker and cameraman Bhaskar (Sanjay Mishra). There isn’t much a super-talented Mishra can do in Bhakshak. It’s good to see two like-minded people working against the system. Vaishali first ignores a solid lead handed by a local informer. Later, delves deeper into the issue and relentlessly works towards her mission- rescuing the powerless, orphaned girls tormented in the shelter home. She loses her sleep and now faces patriarchal punches from her family. These scenes are underwritten like the whole script. But I am impressed by Bhumi Pednekar’s resilient performance here. While dealing with the cracks in her personal and professional life, she ensures she is genuinely pained inside and that reflects outside.

Bhakshak has a very disturbing start and somewhat preaching end. In between, it misses many nuances and runs in a slow, realistic rhythm. Dark shots in the shelter home leave a lump in our throats, but they still lack the language of cinema. Its master Bansi Sahu, the influential man of the area, and the other two including the sick lady warden seemed a bit overboard. Aditya Srivastava was good but something is off in his screen chemistry.

Decent watch.