‘Assi’: Traumatic, hard-hitting, unavoidable

How often have we read news reports of a woman being gangraped in a moving car and how often have we turned insular to reportage of such heinous incidents? In his latest film ‘Assi’, acclaimed director Anubhav Sinha not only gives a face, heart and soul to a rape survivor, but also stirs something deep within us.

With horror, we watch a young woman, Parima (Kani Kusruti), being pulled into a car by a bunch of youngsters. Hereafter, what happens is meant to evoke repugnance and Anubhav succeeds in bringing out the reprehensibility of the crime in a no-holds-barred sequence. How can this crime against women, rather humanity, be fun for some? The thought is as unsettling as searing.

Sexual violence is all-pervasive — data screams it day in and out. But do we pay attention? The title of the film, ‘Assi’, is a grim reminder of how a rape is reported every 20 minutes in our country — approximately 80 every day. Yet, but for a barbaric Nirbhaya case, our conscience rests in deep slumber. Only Anubhav, the social conscience of Bollywood with meaningful and socially relevant films like ‘Mulk’, ‘Thappad’ and ‘Bheed’ in his kitty, won’t let us remain unaffected. So here he builds an unflinching account of what rape does to a woman’s body and, more damagingly, her mind and soul.

Kani, the lovely actor of Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’, mirrors that trauma most brilliantly. Especially in scenes when she is asked to identify the accused, or when her husband touches her after the horrific onslaught on her body; every twitch of her malleable face conveys the emotive graph of her character. Her need to come out of victimhood and bid for normalcy is exceptionally exemplified too.

What impacts equally forcefully are the inflections built in the story written by Anubhav and Gaurav Solanki. Watch how school head (Seema Pahwa shines in a small role) tells Parima that she can’t let her back into her teaching job, for her students are cracking jokes about her. As she ponders over what exactly we are teaching children, she makes us reflect on where we are going as a society. What depravity makes us sink so low?

The constant presence of the children, including Parima’s son, is a smart ploy to remind us what we are doing to the innocent as well as hinting at the death of innocence.

In a country where five-year-olds are being violated, is there any point in keeping them out of courtrooms? Can we insulate them from the monstrosity happening all around? Any wonder the suitably restrained Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Parima’s husband, on being asked why he brings his son to the court, replies, “He is not a child anymore.” The last line by a pitch perfect Revathy as the judge telling children in her courtroom, “Do better than us”, makes us question what value system we are bequeathing our young.

To heighten the drama, there are persuasive courtroom proceedings. Taapsee Pannu plays public prosecutor Raavi. But in a system that can be easily manipulated, forensic evidence botched up, police bribed, CCTV recordings erased, can she ensure justice to the victim? Taapsee, also seen in ‘Mulk’ and ‘Thappad’, rises to the occasion and delivers a heartfelt performance. Her emotive arguments in the court might appear a bit inappropriate and out of line with court decorum, but are no less relevant. Besides, the film raises a pertinent point about vigilante justice. On the face of it, the vigilante angle with the ever-dependable Kumud Mishra as Kartik might seem out of place in a story about a very real and urgent concern, told realistically too. But, the maker himself debunks the futility of it.

Revenge, as shown in a zillion Hindi films, is certainly not the answer to such atrocities. Then what is? Perhaps the justice system is. Maybe the police with their heart in the right place. Jatin Goswami as cop Sanjay measures up to those values, and perhaps not.

A film can’t be expected to give answers, it can only point out what ails us as a society. In that sense, we all are complicit, not just the father of the accused, played remarkably well by Abhinav’s onscreen constant Manoj Pahwa, who wants to save his son at all costs.

Only the dead are silent and don’t think… a short poem by Raavi says it all. Despite a few unwanted contrivances in the climax, ‘Assi’ may not be as powerful as ‘Thappad’ or ‘Mulk’, but calls for urgent viewing. The red screen warning flashing every 20 minutes as to how a rape occurs in the same time-frame might not work, but the film sure does. Watch it, not for you are a man or a woman, but as an integral member of a society which needs course correction, particularly in how we understand, or rather don’t, the far-reaching ramifications of sexual abuse.