India, Sept. 3 -- Taapsee Pannu's Gandhari has finally arrived on Netflix and while the thriller revolves around a mother's desperate search for her kidnapped daughter, its title has naturally sparked another question among viewers - is Taapsee's character Bani actually based on Gandhari from the Mahabharata?

The film draws a clear symbolic connection to the mythological character, particularly through the idea of blindness, motherhood, grief and a woman's response to the suffering of her child. However, Bani is not a direct retelling of Gandhari's story from the Mahabharata. Instead, writer Kanika Dhillon has reinterpreted the mythological figure through a contemporary story about a mother who refuses to remain a passive victim.

Who Is...