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Calling Valmiki her inspiration, Phoolan Devi wanted to die as a sadhvi after she found life in politics worse than that in the ravines of Chambal.
"She left the world of crime to enter a cleaner life. But after seeing politics she said things were worse," says Dhruv Kumar, who made a documentary on Phoolan in 1996.
Dhruv, a human rights activist who had known Phoolan since her days in prison, resents that the "other side" of Phoolan was never depicted and that she went on to become a caricature "who was never taken seriously".
His half-an-hour documentary, Phoolan: The First Rebel, co-produced and directed for Italian network RAI-International and made "from the eyes of Phoolan", traces her journey from her traumatic childhood to Parliament.
"I wanted to probe why Phoolan became what she was," says Dhruv, who also fought for her by filing a complaint at the National Human Rights Council against Shekhar Kapoor's Bandit Queen, after seeing which he said Phoolan was terribly perturbed.
"Phoolan told me that she came out of the theatre covering her face with her saree. She felt it had outraged her modesty," Dhruv says, adding that the filmmaker could have given a different treatment to the rape scenes and the shots where she is paraded naked.
Dhruv says Phoolan recalled the Behmai massacre as the most unfortunate mistake. "She always said that it was not planned and that they had gone to Behmai to look for two Thakurs, whom they did not find."
After 11 years in jail Phoolan had no idea where to go, but she was not interested in politics. "It was later on her husband Umed Singh's insistence for a ticket for himself that she approached Mulayam Singh Yadav, who coaxed her into fighting elections," Dhruv recalls.
"I kept in touch with her and she used to tell me that she was not very happy with the way things were in politics."
"She had started to learn English," he says, adding that he tried to teach Phoolan how to sign. "She even wanted to adopt a child."
Phoolan's life became a commercial product for all -- film-makers, media and politicians. It was when the foreign magazines and international press started showing a lot of interest in her that Dhruv thought of making a documentary.
"We are now making another film - Return of the Rebels - which is based on a dalit women for whom Phoolan became an idol," he says.
Though several exploited dalit women in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have taken to the gun inspired by Phoolan, Dhruv says the original Bandit Queen never wanted Behmai to be repeated.
PTI
Phoolan Devi Murder: The Complete Coverage
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