Movie review: Article 15
By: Rikke Giertsen
Tags: Bollywood, Movies, Movie Review, Corruption, Rape

A very interesting movie that gives a small glimpse into rural life, the brutal caste system, and police corruption. This movie title refers to Article 15 in the Indian Constitution:

15 (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

You can read the whole article, and constitution here.

IMDb

8.2 stars

2t 10min

2019

Hindi

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Writers: Anubhav Sinha, Gaurav Solanki

Stars: Ayushmann Khurrana, Nassar, Manoj Pahwa

The story

Three young teenage girls, two of them cousins, go missing from a village, however, their local police station chooses to not pursue the matter and turn their worried family away.

At the same time, a Delhi police officer arrives to become the local police chief and the next day two of the girls are found hanged. The third girl is still missing and the police are yet to start a search for her. The current most high ranking police officer claims this is honor killing by cousins father who discovered they were lesbians and attempts to block the autopsy reports which shows it was a gang rape over several days. The Delhi police man is then torn between doing what is expected of him, or doing what is right.

Then movie, in a very delicate but obvious way, touch on these areas:

Corruption

Political ploy

Silencing

Suppression

Discrimnation

The caste “system”

Injustice/broken juridical system

What is so interesting with this, and other Indian movies touching on clear systemic issue the country has is that India doesn’t shy away from them. It’s well aware and use the movie industry as a way to get this out to the masses. I will review more movies where this is the case as well.

This is, of course, in stark contrast to countries like the US and Australia who will publicly ignore / refuse to admit to social issues, for example on their treatment of women, black people, indigenous people, and minorities, just to mention a few.

Some of what I believe were the best scene’s, or important to pay attention to:

A conversation between a top ranking police officer and the new police chief, whom is being suspended due to pursuing the rape and murder enquiry:

CBI Officer Panikar: If there is more violence (by the lower caste) they will be the one to pay for it.

Ayan Ranjan: Who is being violent sir?

CBI Officer Panikar: You’ve must have heard their slogans. “Long live Bhim!”

Ayan Ranjan: Sometimes the quiet persistent violence behind such violence is overlooked. It becomes part of our culture. We don’t call it violence then. We call it law and order.

CBI Officer Panikar: You can’t be neutral can you?

Ayan Ranjan: Staying neutral when a fire is raging, is standing with the ones who lit it.

When Ayan Ranjan asks the police officers which caste they are, and how it all compares to other castes, something which is illegal to ask, by law, you can clearly see the frustration the city dweller (and the viewer) has for this “system”.

The two fathers of the murdered girls are at one stage in the police station admitting to their daughters murders and claiming it was honor killing. This is after the scenes where they are outside the police station, in tears, asking for the police to investigate their daughters murders. It’s clearly a forced confession and you can see their defeat in their num facial expressions.

The root cause of the conflict that “leads” to the rapes, has to do with the girls asking their employer for a 3 Rs increase in their daily wages, from 25 Rs (USD 0.34) to 28 Rs. All this injustice for 3 Rs is unfathomable. A large proportions of Indians work for daily wages so I can only imagine how many struggles to live on it, and how much courage it takes to ask for a raise, knowing the power the employer holds over their employees who rely on daily income to survive.

There are so many other scenes I could pull out, such as conversations between higher and lower ranked police officers, and the rebellion and police, but it’s best you just watch it for yourself.