In these uncertain times, and hot on the heels of “Slumdog Millionaire” comes a heartfelt story of boundless courage, determination, and inspiration…
Filmed in India over six years and narrated by Academy Award winning actor, Helen Mirren, YES MADAM, SIR is a ‘David and Goliath’ epic story profiling Asia Nobel Prize winner, Kiran Bedi – India’s first woman police officer. YES MADAM, SIR carries the audience through an emotional, tumultuous, frustrating and often hilarious journey of a person who defies all odds, makes history, ruffles feathers, and who triumphs to ultimately affect change from within a centuries-old world.
A modern day Gandhi, Bedi is an intriguing paradox: deified by millions for her commitment to social justice and her public stance against corruption; vilified by the establishment as a publicity seeking, uncontrollable megalomaniac. The true drama lies not in Bedi’s extraordinary audacity, but in the inherent contradictions in her character. In Bedi’s eyes, she fights the fight of the underdog on an ultimately sinking ship.
In everyone there is a dream of what can be…
Raised by her visionary parents with privileges normally afforded Indian sons, Bedi makes a star turn as a champion athlete before applying to join the elite ranks of the Indian Police Service in 1972. Initially rejected, her historical application is accepted only when she threatens Supreme Court action…
The battle lines are drawn…
Bedi sets herself apart early in her career when during an infamous riot, armed only with a wooden baton, she single-handedly fights back hundreds of sword-wielding Sikh protestors. Her male colleagues retreat. Asked if she was frightened, Bedi stoically replied, “No. I was very focused”. The masses become enraptured with a defiant hero, and the media is obsessed. Bedi continues to attract the hostility of the bureaucracy and politicians due to her unconventional policing methods. Highly controversial incidences including towing away the illegally parked car of then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, further fuels the backlash and Bedi is consequently transferred to a series of ‘punishment postings’.
To ultimately ‘disappear’ her, Bedi is ‘sentenced’ to helm Tihar Jail, Asia’s largest and most corrupt prison. To many it is a mission for Bedi to fail and fall prey to Tihar’s underbelly. To Bedi, it is her “Everest or Waterloo’‘. Vying for control with gangsters and criminalized guards with little support from her superiors, Bedi bypasses official channels to swiftly implement spiritual, educational and health programs to curb corruption and raise the living standards and dignity of the prisoners. These historical and revolutionary reforms at Tihar jail result in the Asia Nobel Prize for Bedi, and a personal invite from then President Clinton to attend the annual White House Prayer Breakfast. It also results in Bedi’s sudden and unceremonious removal amidst a slew of grave allegations.
Determined to work unhindered, Bedi takes leave and creates her own voluntary work inside Delhi’s infamous slums, addressing endemic poverty, illiteracy, child labour and ghetto crime. She is eventually lured back to the police department to an uncharacteristically prestigious posting, overseeing the jurisdiction of an entire city outside Delhi. Within 40 days, Bedi dramatically quits the dream job rushing to the side of her critically ill mother, her greatest ally. That decision earns another punishment posting; Bedi soon takes charge of the ramshackle Delhi Police Training College. Initially grief-stricken and her professional life in tatters, Bedi ultimately delivers a shocking surprise to the department by training thousands of cadets as her own foot soldiers.
As Bedi stares down the barrel of her final years in the force with the ultimate posting of Police Commissioner in sight, she finds herself again dogged by allegations of misconduct, and surrounded by her greatest enemies occupying the top positions of the Delhi Police. In an unexpected stroke of luck, Bedi is headhunted by the United Nations for the ultimate policing job based in NYC. Those who have plotted against her again attempt sabotage. Faced with limited prospects in the force, yet not wanting to leave behind her ailing father, Bedi is faced with the decision of a lifetime.
With her baton at the ready, Bedi will always find a battle. Paradoxically the very qualities that propel Kiran Bedi to triumph could ultimately spell her downfall. The contradictions in Bedi’s character are never so evident than when her work and personal life are paralleled. Through exclusive and intimate home scenes with her father and daughter, and tender moments with her estranged husband, the filmmaker’s uncensored access unravels the truth behind the icon to reveal the most tragic, poignant and comedic moments of the film.
Packed with heart, YES MADAM, SIR is a roller coaster ride of the triumph and frustration, fame and infamy, comedy and tragedy, passion and pain of a sole leader, and a searing insight into a lawmaker who becomes a law unto herself.