ARTICLE 15 - Who Will Guard The Guards?

What purpose well-intentioned movies on social issues serve? Does just one movie solves an issue? Do they only strike a chord with the already converted lot or are they able to engage the set of audience who may have been indifferent towards such issues? It is not that Hindi cinema has not been making movies on social issues earlier. The parallel or art cinema since Seventies has been instrumental in taking up various themes ranging from class-divide, gender discrimination, violence against women, communalism, labour issues, etc., but mainstream cinema has mostly been reluctant to take up hard-hitting issues primarily due to commercial prospects and unwillingness of audience to accept such movies, especially when it deals with disturbing content. However, powerful movies on social issues do come up once in a while in mainstream cinema and ARTICLE 15 is one such movie which deserves an applaud for being brutally upfront about the issue it aims to highlight. Anubhav Sinha as the movie’s director has definitely pushed his boundaries to take up such a powerful cinema after his earlier film Mulk, which came out last year. Considering that Anubhav Sinha has been director of movies such as Tum Bin, Dus, Ra-one, Cash, etc., he has definitely ventured into a unchartered territory and is coming out with flying colours.   

The movie is essentially based on the theme of caste discrimination faced by Dalits in India and the prevalent caste divides even after 70 years of independence, where even our Constitution since its inception had made practicing caste discrimination a punishable offence. The film derives its name from Article 15 of Indian Constitution which states that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of race, religion, caste, sex and place of birth, along with other provisions on similar lines. The movie is portrayed through the lens of an upper caste IPS Officer Ayan Ranjan played brilliantly by the jovial Ayushmann Khurrana, who has mostly ventured into doing comedy roles earlier. The movie is set up in a fictional village Lalgaon in Uttar Pradesh, where Ayan is posted for the first time. It is shown that Ayan has stayed in Europe for some time and has lived in Delhi, with him being a St. Stephens graduate and his views on prevalent caste discrimination has primarily been shaped up by mainstream media. The movie’s plot revolves around a crime incident where two adolescent girls are found dead hanging from a tree and another girl goes missing from a Dalit village and how the town’s administration deals with it.

It comes as a rude shock to Ayan when he witnesses the apathy of police force in dealing with the case because the affected families belong to “lower caste” and the police staff keeps insisting that such incidents are a common thing for these communities and intervening in such matters would upset the delicate existing “social balance”.  He gets to closely witness various forms of caste discrimination such as not sharing a plate with a lower caste person, drinking water being served separately for lower caste people, youth from Dalit communities being flogged publicly because of them entering a temple, etc. In his earlier image of modern India, he thought that caste discrimination had been a thing of the past. The movie does not really delves into the prevalent tension between upper-caste and lower-caste communities in the hinterlands, especially when it leads to several caste-related atrocities. ARTICLE 15 instead shifts the focus on how the various arms of administration ranging from police force, government hospitals, bureaucrats, etc. treat the people from Dalit communities as lesser citizens and how politicians merely try to use them as a vote bank.

ARTICLE 15 scores on several fronts such as having a taut script, not shying away from portraying disturbing scenes to make the audience feel unsettled, representing how Dalit communities have the potential to resist the oppression, the realistic portrayal of despondency as how things may not change any time soon, raising the larger socio-political questions without being too preachy, etc. The film’s excellent cinematography, including some sombre sets, really transports the audience to the Indian hinterland. The background score keeps the tension palpable throughout the film. ARTICLE 15 has several backdrops of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s statue in the movie, as a symbol of Dalit leadership, which has mostly been non-existent from mainstream cinema and which was a refreshing thing to see on screen. The film also draws a character from real life Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad of Bhim Army in a cameo role, played by Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub who leaves notable impact in the film explaining the challenges of Dalit resistance. Manoj Pahwa and Kumud Mishra also deliver a first rate performance as an upper-caste police officer and a lower-caste police officer, respectively in the film. Ayushmann Khurana really excels in a serious role of a police officer who carries the restlessness of making things right with sincerity. Isha Talwar in a brief role as Ayushmann’s partner, who plays the role of a writer-activist, fulfils the role of a moral compass for his partner.     

One of the standout scenes of the movie comes when Ayan Ranjan is surrounded by police officers and constables and his PA explains to him the caste of each and every one there and where they stand in social hierarchy. He just gets exasperated to know as how even the police officers treat the matter so casually and take this for granted. It is to an extent debatable as whether the movie’s protagonist should have been an upper-caste person trying to act as the saviour of the Dalits and whether it does justice with the theme. The director’s assertion has been that his intention was not to preach to the converted. May be the portrayal of an upper-caste protagonist helps to reach out better to the intended audience, which has mostly been indifferent towards the issue of rampant caste discrimination. The film hits the bullseye in raising the crucial question that when the people responsible for implementing the Constitution disregard it blatantly, then what hope the marginalized communities can have for being treated equally and how will they get justice. After all, who will guard the guards?We need more such movies in mainstream cinema which can call a spade a spade with the rightful intention of leaving the audience disturbed and question the wrongdoings.

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TUMHARI SULU - Main Kar Sakti Hai

TUMHARI SULU - Vidya Balan’s latest venture is a simple and heartwarming story of Sulochana Dubey, a.k.a. Sulu, a homemaker living in a suburb of Mumbai with her husband and young son, who aspires to carve an identity of her own, beyond the boundaries of her middle-class family life. The movie by the debutant director Suresh Triveni (he has been the man behind Star Sports World Cup Mauka Mauka ad series), will leave you with a delightful experience who gives a memorable character for Vidya Balan and the movie easily strikes a chord with the middle-class moviegoers, who can relate with the nitty-gritties of their daily lives. The movie Tumhari Sulu adds to the list of the recent women-centric films of Bollywood and the line “Main kar sakti hai” truly depicts the never-say-die attitude of Sulu’s character.

Sulu is reminiscent of a typical Indian housewife, who takes pride even in small achievements in life like winning sports contests organized for moms, winning consumer items as prizes in radio contests, taking part in events organized by housing societies, etc. She is bubbly, vivacious, fun-loving and says, “Mujhe har cheez karne mein maza aata hai”. Sulu by education is 12th fail, who is constantly reprimanded by her elder twin-sisters and her father for not achieving something worthwhile in her life, while her sisters are placed in well-settled respectable bank jobs. Even though Sulu is quite adept in her mimicry skills and has a smoky and silvery voice but she has never given a thought that it could help her in shaping up a career. Sulu’s husband Ashok, played by competent Manav Kaul (featured in Kai Po Che, Waris, etc.),  is a supportive husband who keeps giving a thumbs up to her dozens of business ideas. He cheers her up when she takes part in the mom’s sports contests and along with their son they make a loving happy family. Ashok and Sulu make a delightful couple and they share a great fun-loving chemistry between them, depicted in scenes like when Vidya Balan says, “Ashok, mere pair daba do na...” or when they mimic a song together.

Sulu’s life takes a welcome turn when she wins a pressure cooker in a radio contest and visits the radio channel’s office to collect her coveted prize, where she sees a vacancy for a RJ and strongly believes that she can take up the job. The radio channel owner played by a confident Neha Dhupia gives her an audition chance and thinks that a late-night radio show with “Saree-waali Bhabhi” can be a hit idea for desperate souls looking to call up someone at night. Vidya Balan’s rendition of saying “Hello” in a utterly seductive way wins her the job, but her family is opposed to the idea of her working in late-night shifts and that too a late-night adult radio shows which is morally questionable for the middle-class respectable standards.

Sulu remains determined to take up the job and her husband supports her decision a bit reluctantly. The challenges of managing her family with the new responsibilities is depicted in a truthful manner, along with the feeling of guilt creeping in of not being able to give enough time for the family, which many working women can relate with. While Sulu’s career as a RJ picks up, Ashok faces new challenges at his workplace when a new boss comes over, who leaves no stone unturned in making his life more miserable day after day. These two divergent paths of husband and wife create strains in their cheerful family life which essentially forms the second half of the movie. Moreover, no matter how supportive Ashok has been of her homemaker wife, the typical male ego starts influencing his behavior towards her (reminds of the movie Abhimaan). Things get further complicated when he gets to know that the hit radio show has made his wife a subject of fantasies of many unknown men, which adds to his insecurities. An unwanted incident at their son’s school makes a sharp dent in their family harmony which forces Sulu to almost think of giving up her career and going back to her family life.

All in all, this is a Vidya Balan film and she really gets into the skin of her character. Her portrayal of a middle-class homemaker managing the chores and aspiring for a better life is superb and her laughter and cheerfulness on the silver screen wins the hearts. Manav Kaul also marks his own presence in the movie, while the twin-sisters doing “Hai naa Didi? Haan Didi” throughout the film is really quirky but something new to watch. While the movie does not overtly takes a feminist stand, but raises some important questions on why it is only the women folks who should go the extra mile to take care of the family and why should a woman’s aspirations take a back foot when it comes to being a good wife and a good mother. The movie also delicately tries to raise questions on what constitutes a respectable job and what doesn’t. Do watch out the movie for a fantastic performance of Vidya Balan and a story which most of us can relate with!

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Movie Review by Nishank

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Review of movie PINK - Don't Judge The Movie By Its Name!

PINK – The choice of title for a movie represented by a color which is stereotypical to woman would make anyone wonder, if the movie would go beyond the conventions. But Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s directorial debut in Bollywood (he has directed some Bengali films before) strikes hard and goes a long way in challenging the existing norms around what really defines a woman’s character. Is it about the company of people she hangs out with, the time of the day when she is out of the house, whether she drinks or not, what kind of dress she wears and so on.  The film stretches the question further and compels the audience to think, especially the male audience, as whether this blanket characterization should define as whether the consent of a woman is important or not. Pink is essentially story of three independent working women sharing a flat in a posh colony in Delhi and how a seemingly innocuous hanging out with a company of guys met during a rock concert turns out into a living nightmare for them. An attempt of molestation by one of these guys is met by retaliation with a serious head injury, which provokes them to take revenge on these girls. Coincidentally, having political backing up makes it much easier for them to conspire to teach a lesson, which soon escalates into a police case where these women are falsely charged with assaulting the guys. This is followed by an intense courtroom drama, which is mostly the second half of the movie. What happens next and whether these girls are able to come out of the dreadful ordeal forms rest of the story.

The movie scores high on having a strong storyline (written by Ritesh Shah) and sticking to the basics. The movie has only a couple of songs in the background and no item numbers to break the flow of the story. The director has adeptly given the movie a very realistic feel and the movie hardly goes overboard at any point of time. The scenes of the movie which portray the transition as how the lives of the female characters go under an upheaval and how they face the harassment from the people around them is worth mentioning, along with the scary moments of living under threat, especially during the scenes shot at night. One might say that the overtly serious tone of the movie lowers the entertainment quotient for the general audience, but it is definitely a treat for the lovers of hard-hitting cinema. A good storyline also means that the movie is less “star dependent” for its success and would have done fairly well with other sets of actors too. Yes having Amitabh Bachchan in one of the lead roles add a lot to the visibility to the movie and he definitely delivers yet another stellar performance as the lawyer representing the women trio in the court. However, at times it feels that the insertion of the character of Amitabh Bachchan as an old age lawyer with bipolar disorder and trying to weave a subplot around his life only stretched the movie, else which could have made it more gripping. The lead actress Taapsee Pannu is still not a known name in Bollywood (Chashme Baddoor, Baby), but marks her presence well in the movie with her acting. She is accompanied well by her other co-stars Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang. For a change this Bollywood movie features a North-Eastern character with actually someone from North-East. Angad Bedi as the nephew of a powerful politician fits well in the role with his suave charm unlike the typecast of a villain, accompanied by his three other friends, Raashul Tandon, Tushar Pandey and Vijay Verma. The character of Ankit Malhotra played by debut actor Vijay Verma deserves a special mention as the ‘bad guy’ who instigates his friends for revenge and takes sadistic pleasure in threatening the girls. Piyush Mishra as the lawyer defending the guys also does a fair job.

Kudos to co-producer Shoojit Sircar (Vicky Donor, Piku) for bringing forth this movie, which comes forward to challenge the double-standards of our society without getting too preachy about it. The deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset among a large section of society tend to define the boundaries of freedom for the women, including reducing the safety for the women equivalent to avoiding going out on the streets at midnight (remember the Nirbhaya case).  In such a scenario, how can women freely assert their freedom without any fear? Why it should be assumed by the men folks that a woman is much easy to woo into bed if she wears western clothes, laughs out loud, touches someone during free-flowing conversations, gulps down a couple of drinks and sounds “too forward”? The movie tries to delve into such questions and comes out really strong in giving the message around consent of a woman that a NO is a NO, minus any connotations attached. It was truly the director’s masterstroke of not portraying a woman lawyer handling the case of the girls which might have appeared sermonizing, but instead gave the job to a male character, along with a male judge to decide the fate of the case. The movie does a fair job in making the audience emotionally connect with the characters, which becomes evident with the round of applauses towards the end credits. While to the feminists the plot of the movie may appear not much radical, but for the “aam audience” it definitely gives an ample food of thought to discuss, debate and take the issue of freedom of women ahead.  Overall, a strongly recommended movie and definitely stands out as one of the best movies of 2016 so far!