POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Anubhav Sinha and Gaurav Solanki, the relevance of the title Assi remains on a startling figure of the number of women ‘assaulted’ in a day in India. The same always acts as a chilling connective thread involving a red screen with the caption – 20 minutes, a fearful reminder on how a woman is assaulted every 20 minutes. This technique employed in Dhurandhar too, is far more triggering here – even whilst tracing the journey of Parima along the way. The concerned incident involving Parima is brutal, raw, and unforgiving, almost making you a bystander in the most uncomfortable manner possible. The sequence is long and endless, even as the concerned culprits take turns almost like a ‘tournament of thrusts’ – something that made me disgusted, furious, helpless and triggered, all at the same time. And yet, this incident remained just the tip of the iceberg for the drama to follow.


The beauty of Assi lies in its finer detailing with respect to the characters. Whilst Parima is showcased to be a teacher, you see her husband Vinay (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub) to be an idealist. In an early scene, you see Vinay asking his young son to stop and allow the girls to climb the school bus first. In another, you see him smiling away to glory while watching his wife dance to a Govinda number. Vinay remains a secured person, almost believing the fact that chivalry begins at home – wherein you do need to teach your young sons on how to behave in the society. In the aftermath of the triggering event, Vinay is asked on why did he bring his son to the hospital, to which he calmly replies on how all of this would anyway make it to his home. It is perhaps his way of teaching his son the harsh realities of the society with the purpose of wanting him to understand between right and wrong.

The world of Assi could easily form an intersection with the one in Pink (2016). The premise remains eerily similar – a female being assaulted in a moving van that would extend into an endless court case with the crumbling nature of the police force and judiciary being exposed to the world. It is here on how the character of Ravee (Taapsee Pannu) could easily have been Minal (also Taapsee Pannu) from Pink. And hence, the sense of gravitas and morality of Ravee is understandable, particularly while taking up the case of Parima. You see her fierce side in the airtight courtroom proceedings that sees her plead her case to the judge Vasudha (Revathy), while being challenged by the defence lawyer Navratan (Satyajit Sharma).

The crumbling nature of the system is evident here, even as you are briefly witness to a series of tweaks that lace the narrative. Right from destroying evidence to tampering with the reports, from rich daddies coming to save their children to creating an alibi – Ravee has to deal with it all. It is interesting on how the judge Vasudha may have had an inkling about these false claims too – but despite that having to systematically allow the investigation to transpire. A common thread connecting most female characters here is of helplessness – some from the POV of seeking justice (Parima), some from the POV of demanding justice (Ravee), and some from the POV of imparting justice (Vasudha). In such moments, you see tenderness creep in during the interactions between two females – in a scene, you see Ravee consoling a frightful Parima when the latter couldn’t identify the culprits in the aftermath of the trauma.

One of the interesting characters in the fray remained Kartik (Kumud Mishra), a mysterious character submerged in a sea of trauma following the passing away of his wife in an accident. The trauma for Kartik here is deep – almost being regretful of not being able to be with her in her final moments while also not knowing how to come to terms with her loss. Even for Kartik, it is the system who is to be blamed given the hit and run culprit is probably scott free, and oblivious of Kartik’s loss. It may be noted that Kartik is implied to be in the services – a case that can be interpreted with his form of attention to detailing with a further indication on how he can’t directly divulge details about it.

Some of the other characters make an impact too – the rich father of one of the accused Deepraj (Manoj Pahwa) who is shown to be a bratty patriarch with respect to the females of his own family. An honest but helpless cop (Jatin Goswami) who is shown to silently bear the cross while noticing the defects of the department, and having to bow down to the unsaid demands of his corrupt seniors. In a scene, you see his desperation reach a point wherein he tortures a character in exchange for a forceful confession.

The first hour is dense but hard-hitting almost bringing my buried frustration of all the citings around me to the fore. The feeling remained that of angst mixed with helplessness. But the issue arises in the second hour, mildly with a particular subplot involving a vigilante (read: Chhatri Man) that hijacks the narrative and deviates from the core. I could see what the makers were going for – highlighting the importance of how two wrongs cannot make a right. But in the process of these killings, the drama did fall in its own trap of what it wished to say versus what came across eventually. The best example that I can cite here is of Delhi-6 (2009) – a film that also had a subplot of a ‘Kaala Bandar’ killer roaming freely on the streets. The difference remained on how the subplot in that film was just restricted to the background, while the soul of the film remained uncompromised.

This is not to say that the second hour completely dips. In fact, there is a lot to like in this passage too. Be it Raavi’s hopeless plea on how the particular judgment in question wouldn’t stop similar crimes from taking place even while having ink thrown at her face, or Parima’s slow journey into acceptance – almost being guilty of feeling relieved that ‘someone’ had killed one of the accused in her case before quickly reminding herself on how that is wrong. There is an emotional thread that transforms into a hard-hitting reality even as a young character in court recalls on how her father had committed a similar crime with her mother (read: marital r*pe). Moments like these are gut-wrenching while culminating into an ending that is shocking but haunting in many ways. The screenplay here is well written and deserves to be pondered upon.