Batwara 1989

Sumer and Vikram are two close friends whose bond is well known in the village. Sumer serves as a cop, while Vikram belongs to the landowning class. The film unfolds in a post-independence setting, where a new land sealing law restricts how much land a person can own. This is a drastic blow to the powerful Thakur family, who own vast acres of land. The rule says the excess land must be surrendered to the government and redistributed to farmers, a change that threatens their grip on power.

In this tense climate, Deven plans a scheme to keep the land within the family by backdating transactions and forging signatures or thumb impressions from the farmers who till the land (which is mortgaged to the Thakurs). The village Sarpanch Lakhiya—the Sarpanch Lakhiya—stands with them, agreeing to help manipulate records and persuade farmers to approve the changes.

During a crowded meeting, the farmers stand firm in their resolve to keep their land. Anger erupts, and Deven panics and fires his rifle, killing one villager. The mob, enraged by the act, lynches him on the spot. Grief-stricken, Vikram returns to his village to perform the last rites of his brother and cannot bear the sight of the carnage. Fueled by rage, he travels to the farmers’ dwellings with his rifle, mows down several farmers, and sets their homes ablaze. He slips into the ravines and joins a band of outlaws, forming a gang of his own. In return, the bandits gain money and protection from the influential Thakur family.

Meanwhile, Vikram’s youngest brother, Rajendra Singh, who is also a cop, comes back to the village. He is appalled by the turn of events and refuses to aid the Thakurs in crushing the rebellion. His father urges him to shield Vikram and punish the villagers who defied their supremacy, but Rajendra stays true to his oath as a lawman.

When Sumer returns, the weight of what has happened tears at him. He cannot reconcile his friendship with Vikram and ends up marrying his beloved Jina, who is orphaned after her brother’s death at Vikram’s hands. Sumer confronts Vikram and declares that their friendship is over. Bade Thakur, Vikram’s father, then brings in Hanumant Thakur—Hanumant Thakur to suppress the rebellion led by Sumer, while Rajendra’s junior ally finds his own ways to control the situation. Hanumant’s arrival brings a harsh reign of terror; he even assaults pregnant Jina, causing a miscarriage, which inflames Sumer and leads him to assault the police station, killing many officers before escaping with some of the stolen arsenal, distributing weapons to villagers and turning his own gang into a rival force to Vikram’s.

What follows is a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Sumer and Vikram each raid the others’ strongholds—Sumer plundering the Thakurs’ granary and Vikram lifting money earned from selling produce. In retaliation, Sumer strikes at the Thakurs’ Haveli (mansion). The police eventually regain control as Rajendra is restored to leadership, but Vikram plans to burn the entire village. He learns of a police trap laid for him by a rival gang, but escapes, though many of his men are killed. Sumer escalates by raiding the Haveli again, and soon the two gangs stand on opposite sides of a massive showdown.

Rajendra investigates the rebellion and uncovers the brutalities inflicted by Hanumant. He contemplates suspending Hanumant and his accomplices, while Hanumant plots to eliminate Rajendra in the looming confrontation. A cop overhears the plan and passes the information to Vikram. At a critical moment, the two women in their lives—Sumer’s wife and Vikram’s wife—step forward. They reveal how the gang leaders are betraying them for money, and their words help to unite the two former rivals.

Deciding to end the bloodshed, Sumer and Vikram join forces, first taking out the leaders of their respective gangs and then heading to the designated showdown point, where the police have already laid a trap. They pretend to surrender, only to kidnap Hanumant. In a quiet moment that harkens back to their childhood, they remember earlier times and kill Hanumant, a deadly echo of a long-forgotten memory. As the battle erupts around them, bullets rain down like a cold hail, and the two friends, now mortal enemies turned unlikely allies, are mortally wounded in the struggle, their fates sealed as their memories of youth collide with the brutal realities of their present.

This sweeping tale blends personal loyalty, betrayal, and the corrosive thirst for power against a backdrop of rural upheaval, where two former friends must confront the consequences of a social order bent on control, and where the lines between justice and vengeance blur until the very end.