From starting out as a casting director to taking on socially relevant projects as a lead actress herself, Bhumi Pednekar has carved her niche in contemporary Bollywood in just over a decade. With her latest Netflix venture Bhakshak continuing her politically conscious acting decisions, here’s a list of Pednekar’s best movies along with a guide on where to stream them.
Where to watch Bhumi Pednekar’s filmography?
You can watch most of Bhumi Pednekar’s movies on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Eros NOW, ZEE5 and more. Some of her works are also Netflix originals such as Lust Stories and Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitaare.
Bhumi Pednekar’s Career at a Glance
Born to a Marathi-Haryanvi family, Bhumi Pednekar grew up to have a knack for acting right when her family took a student loan to get her admitted to Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods institute at the age of 15. However, teenage-era Pednekar was soon expelled from the school due to low attendance.
But this didn’t foil Pendekar’s future chances at the industry as she soon took an assistant casting director position at Yash Raj Films, securing her future. After years of casting, Pednekar herself made her acting debut with a Yash Raj production Dum Laga Ke Haisha. Paired alongside Ayushman Khurrana, the romantic comedy-drama found her playing an overweight woman who must deal with the body-shaming attitude of her newlywed husband.
The role earned her rave reviews, a Filmfare win for Best Debut, and a career of playing many more strong-willed women from Indian small-towns. Some prominent cases include the Netflix feminist drama Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitaare and Saand Ki Aankh. The former featured Pednekar as an erotic hotline operator who aspires to achieve bigger dreams while the latter found her playing the late sharpshooter Chandra Tomar who made headlines by taking up the sport in her 60s.
While her projects rarely ever venture into arthouse territory, she often chooses mainstream projects with an underlying social message or more well-defined female leads. So, while Thank You For Coming took upon the issue of sexual desire from a woman’s struggle for the perfect orgasm, Bhakshak reimagined a particularly haunting case of child sexual abuse in 2018 with Pednekar playing a local journalist who broke the story.
Her equally acclaimed performance in Zoya Akhtar’s segment of the Netflix anthology Lust Stories explored social class differences from the point of view of a domestic worker who gets sexually entangled with her employer. Then there’s Badhai Do in which she played a lesbian struggling to come out to her family as they force her into a heteronormative marriage, and Shubh Mangal Savdhaan that reunited her with Ayushman Khurrana who played a man with erectile dysfunction.
Following her Filmfare Best Debut win, Pednekar also picked up two trophies for Best Actress (Critics) category with her work in Saand Ki Aankh and Badhai Do.
Why is Bhakhsak Bhumi Pednekar’s best movie to watch?
It’s very rare for Bhumi Pednekar to deliver an unsatisfying watch but Bhakshak is nothing like what she has done before. A gut-wrenching story set in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, the social drama explores the inner workings of a shelter home that covers up some heinous crimes against underage girls. With Pednekar’s earnest portrayal as the journalist Vaishali Singh, Bhakshak empathically dramatises a real-life incident with enough boldness and minimal preachiness. The end-result is an endearing drama that deserves to be watched by everyone in the country as a wake-up call on the persisting injustice.
