StoryA shoe-smith ArunSachdeva(Sanjay) is shattered when he discovers that his daughter, Bhoomi (Aditi) has been raped by Dhauli (Sharad) and his gang of three. The father and daughter grieve for a bit and then plan revenge.

Review Sanjay Dutt has finally made his comeback to the silver screen after a long while with ‘Bhoomi’. The film has been in news ever since its first look was launched. Helmed by ‘Mary Kom’ director Omung Kumar, ‘Bhoomi’, also starring AditiRaoHydari, SharadKelkar and Sidhant Gupta, is a gritty revenge drama involving a father and daughter.

In the film, Sanjay Dutt is playing a father and his daughter’s role is played by AditiRaoHydari, who is molested by the local political goon played by SharadKelkar. The film’s trailer got praises from all corners and thus we expect a power-pack performance by Sanjay Dutt in the film. And with Sunny Leone’s item number “Trippy Trippy”, ‘Bhoomi’ might pull some more audience.

Here, our very own Arun and Bhoomi are a doting father-daughter team living in Agra. They tug at your heartstrings with their chirpybaap-beti routine of cooking meals, colouring beards and combing hair. However, after a point the bittu-beti endearments rankle. But that's not the only thing that rankles here.

Bhoomi (AditiRaoHydari), a wedding planner on the eve of her own wedding, dotes on her widowed father (Sanjay Dutt). Numerous scenes establish their bond and provide the backdrop for Arun’s transformation into a vigilante after Bhoomi is abducted and gang-raped by three men, including Bhoomi’s pursuer (PuruChibber) and his monstrous cousin Dhauli (SharadKelkar).

As rape-revenge dramas go, Bhoomi treads over well-worn territory, and not because the movie is supposedly drawn from real-life incidents. Bhoomi is your regular rape-revenge drama, but only much louder, with better camerawork and production design. The insensitive cops, the lame public prosecutor, the even lamer defence and the whole court-room drama where it has become fashionable to discuss the heroine's virginity makes you want to scream. Statistics of rapes are rattled off by all and sundry and the word `rape' is used so frequently that it almost knocks you dead.

But like it's said, every cloud has a silver living; Bhoomi has Sanjay Dutt. Returning to the marquee after his incarceration, the actor wears the lines of his face with confidence. You can tell right away that the lion has aged but he's got terrific screen presence.

Bhoomi is better dressed, better filmed and better performed than the old-fashioned revenge drama it actually is.

And the big differentiator is that this film has Dutt showing us that his wrinkles have their own stories to tell. While the idea of an eye-for-an-eye and taking the law into one’s hands is hard to justify, Dutt’s performance is affecting. He’s tender, he’s tormented and helpless, and when he’s vengeful, you feel his pain.