While not a "bandit" in the action sense, Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria provides the spiritual DNA. The occurs when Cabiria is robbed and left for dead by her lover. As she walks back to the road, tears streaming through her clown-like makeup, she is spotted by a group of young revelers. They dance around her, and despite her tragedy, she begins to smile.
The execution of the sequence required immense emotional and physical courage from lead actress Seema Biswas, making her feature film debut. Biswas’s performance earned her a National Film Award for Best Actress, but the filming process was deeply taxing: bandit queen nude scene