Bhakshak (2024)

Girls from a shelter home in Munawwarpur are pimped out, and if something goes wrong, they are killed and cremated. The shelter home is run by Bansi, and his assistant is Sonu, who takes care of the operational details. When Vaishali (Bhumi Pednekar) was handed the social audit report by her informer, she thought it was useless material.

She did not believe she had the power to stop the abuse that the girls at the shelter home in Munawwarpur were subjected to. Guptaji (Durgesh Kumar) was quite persistent about the case, and Vaishali took an interest when he mentioned that the police had not taken any action even though it had been two months since the report had been published. Vaishali started to investigate the case. Vaishali needs a strong story to keep her channel alive, else she will lose all viewers, and with it all sources of income. As soon as Vaishali started investigating, Bansi Sahu's (Aditya Srivastava) name cropped up too often. She meets Mithilesh Sinha, the head of Child Welfare Commission who says that he has no such information about the audit. Sahu, a journalist himself, had a huge influence in the village of Munawwarpur. He contacted Vaishali's husband, Arvind (Surya Sharma), the minute he figured out that a journalist was inquiring about the shelter home. He indirectly threatened Vaishali to back off, but it instead intrigued her interest all the more. Vaishali soon learned that Bansi Sahu had the support of the government. He bought printing papers at a subsidized rate but barely printed three copies. It was a daylight scam, and no one dared to question him. The shelter home belonged to him, and he was also associated with various other NGOs. All the shelter homes of the state come under the purview of Ministry of Social Welfare, headed by Rajni Singh. Everyone was afraid of Bansi Sahu, and the Chief Minister Jitesh Kumar (Anand Sharma) was also within his reach. Vaishali's mentor and cameraman, Bhaskar Sinha (Sanjay Mishra), was a little shaken upon realizing that they would be challenging the government if they decided to expose the abuse and sex racket. Vaishali decided to continue with her investigation and find evidence that would support the claims made in the report. It was almost impossible to find anyone who could provide information about the Munawwarpur shelter home. They tried their best to track down anyone who had been relocated from the Munawwarpur shelter, but they remained unsuccessful. After inquiring at several shelter homes, they finally found hope at one where the cook previously worked at the Munawwarpur shelter home. When Vaishali and Bhaskar introduced themselves, Sudha (Tanisha Mehta) refused to utter a word. She denied knowing or seeing anything unlawful during her time there. Vaishali gave up and was about to leave when Sudha decided to confess the truth under one condition: she was not ready to go on record, and she did not want her name associated with the case. Sudha spoke about her haunting memories at the shelter home. She brought up Baby Rani (Gulista Alija), the shelter warden, and how she mistreated the girls. She used to force the girls to sleep naked while she assaulted them. The 40-45 girls at the shelter had only one room to sleep in, and their health condition was extremely poor. One of the girls advised Sudha to run for her life, and she soon figured out the reason behind it. They had a doctor who took care of cases where the victims were injured to an extreme degree. Later, Sudha watched Bansi and his men party (including Mithilesh) at the shelter home, and they abused and tortured the girls at random. She realized she, too, would meet the same fate and decided to run away that very night. Before leaving, she heard Baby Rani and Sonu (Satyakam Anand) mention killing a girl they had pimped out. The details left Vaishali and Bhaskar speechless. They were all the more determined to expose the perpetrators and rescue the victims. The only problem was that the only witness Vaishali had was not willing to come forward. She soon realized that even though there was a lack of evidence, she had to act confidently to force the abusers to react, and that would eventually lead to one blunder or another. When Vaishali learned that a PIL had been filed against the Munawwarpur shelter home, she assumed her brother-in-law, lawyer Suresh Singh (Danish Iqbal), was behind it. Suresh was completely against Vaishali's decision to look into Bansi Sahu's business. He always looked down upon the work she did, especially because she did not fit into the typical idea of a 'good Indian housewife. ' Bansi's men also thought that Suresh was responsible for the PIL, and they roughed him up to teach Vaishali a lesson. Surprisingly, Arvind showed confidence in the work Vaishali had undertaken, and now that she had his support, it was impossible to deter her from exposing the criminals. Vaishali decided to constantly update her audience about the case, and she discussed the torture Suresh was subjected to and how the police refused to file an FIR against Bansi Sahu. Vaishali's small endeavor all of a sudden caught the attention of the common people as well as the influential. She approached the first female SSP of Munawwarpur, Jasmeet Gaur (Sai Tamhankar), to seek help. While Jasmeet was hopeful that she would find a solution, her senior advised her to stay out of it because of the lack of evidence in the case. The next time Jasmeet and Vaishali met, she helped her understand the importance of putting pressure on the Social Welfare Department. Only after Social Welfare Department files in FIR, can the Police do anything. Meanwhile, it is revealed that it was Guptaji who filed the PIL in Patna High Court. Brijmohan Singh's (Pravin Kumar Sisodia) wife, Rajni Singh (Vibha Chibbar), headed the Social Welfare Department, but he was the one who made all decisions on her behalf. Brijmohan was one of Bansi's many clients, and they maintained a close relationship. Vaishali realized that the only way she could put pressure on the Social Welfare Department was with believable lies. Bhaskar Sinha was assigned the task of pretending to be a well-wisher of Brijmohan. He managed to meet the politician and warned him of the evidence Vaishali had gathered against him and his wife. To instigate a misunderstanding between Bansi and his men, Bhaskar mentioned that Mithilesh Sinha (Chittaranjan Tripathy) from CWC was responsible for providing information to Vaishali. Later that night, Vaishali discussed on her show the death of an officer from the Sitamarhi Social Welfare Department, and she believed that he was shot dead because he was putting pressure on the Social Welfare Department to look into the Munawwarpur shelter home case. With a white sheet in her hand, Vaishali claimed that she had every bit of information on how the Munawwarpur shelter home for girls operated. She stated that the next day, she would finally expose all the ministers and well-known personalities involved in the racket on her special program, Bhakshak. After the program was aired, the Chief Minister contacted Rajni Singh and instructed her to file an FIR immediately. Vaishali was hopeful that Jaspreet Gaur would be able to take the case forward from henceforth, but as it turned out, the FIR was filed in the woman's police station under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act. The Child Welfare Association would record the testimonies of the victim, and if they found anything worth investigating, action would be taken. Vaishali knew there was no hope because Bansi's close aide, Mithilesh Sinha, also a sexual predator, headed the Child Welfare Association. After speaking to the SSP, Vaishali realized that the only way to get the culprits behind bars was by gathering evidence. Vaishali decides to meet Sudha once again and convince her to come forward with her story. Sudha was not ready to endanger her life by becoming a witness in the case, but Vaishali helped her realize how she alone could save the lives of all the abused children. Sudha finally agreed to have her statement recorded. She stood before the camera with her face covered and narrated her entire experience. Bansi and his associates realized it was the end of their free will. Bansi was an egoistic man, and he did not feel an ounce of shame for the heinous crime he committed. He did not allow Baby Rani and Sonu to throw away the bottles of alcohol and contraceptives stored at the shelter home. He was proud of himself, and he did not try to conceal the crime. Mithilesh walked away from Bansi, fearing losing his job. The next morning, police arrived at the Munawwarpur shelter home and rescued the girls. Bansi and his associates were arrested, and justice was finally served. Vaishali Singh addresses her audience, discussing how often the media fails to address issues of importance because of influence. At times, such cases are overlooked simply because they do not appeal to the audience as much as entertaining news does. She expresses her disappointment with the way the world functions, where there is a clear lack of emotion and sympathy, and people prefer to ignore rather than feel. Vaishali continues to play her part as a journalist, but she questions her audience, asking them if they are doing enough to be called human beings in the first place.