CAST: Kiara Advani, Akanksha Ranjan, Gurfateh Pirzada, Deepanshu Totoriya, Taher Shabbir, Manu Rishi, Niki Walia
DIRECTED BY: Ruchi Narain
The statistics are alarming. One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives. 51.1% of female victims of rape reported being raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance. And these are numbers in the United States.
The National Crimes Records Bureau lists that almost 98% of sexual assaults in India towards women were committed by someone known to the victim.
Guilty is the story of a promiscuous girl from a small town who has no qualms about being openly asking for attention. The woman is judged for her behavior so much that when she reports that she was raped no one believed her; not even the audience.
This is the story of how we perceive women who do not conform to our idea of a “good girl”.
Though a little over dramatized in the end with the rock concert scene, this is a story that meets the standards of a credible voice against misogyny and violence against women. The story might have been a lot impactful had only one thread of narrative been followed instead of overlapping the backstories of Tanu, the small town girl and Nanki, the modern rebel who is also a misfit.
There is nothing candyfloss about the narrative. It is as realistic as any girl who has ever led a hostel life can imagine. When Tanu accuses Nanki’s college heartthrob boyfriend of raping her; the audience swings to vouch for the credibility of the heartthrob. Our biases are so deeply entrenched that classism and sexism do not need another reason to surface. When you watch the movie, you will realize your biases.
Even with the strong story, narrative and screenplay, there is something amiss in the flow and you realize the over dramatization may be a part of what taints the authenticity of the characters.
However it is a story that needs to be told. A narrative that needs to find a larger audience and change a lot of minds.
We hope you can watch it with the mindset that however flawed, we need these stories to find the spotlight.
