For the underclass of the Chambal valley, unaffected by media frenzy, Phoolon Devi became a populist cult figure, albeit a vigilante liberator of their class struggle toward social justice. In the end, Phoolon agreed to a negotiated surrender beaten down by converging police forces from three states. But the journey from the book to a screenplay can be treacherous when the subject matter is as volatile and as unsettling as Phoolon Devi with her many manifestations as Kali the goddess of destruction, Durga the goddess who was born to kill, and Phoolon the liberator of the underprivileged, the voice of the people. Kapur bestows on his heroine right from the start. The child is cursed right from the start.
Every frame is one of abuse and endurance, of indignities piled one on top of the other.
The movie rape of the child bride is as disingenuous as the flashbacks Phoolon visualizes as she brutally beats the crap out of her abusive husband later on in the movie. Kapur goes for instant audience gratification as he fabricates yet another scenario for cinematic appeal where the leader of the gang, his bare butt romping up and down is raping Phoolon in full view of his pack of thieves. Young Vikram Mallah disgusted by the assault on a woman blows the rapist away from a fully clothed Phoolon. In reality the leader, a notch above Vikram Mallah in the unyielding hierarchy of the caste system, began to castigate his young lieutenant on his lowly birth. Mallah was protecting Phoolon from the advances of his drunken leader.