Section 375 (2019, Movie Review)

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Section 375 is a courtroom drama that revolves around a director caught in a case of molesting one of his female team member holding the position of an assistant costume designer. This movie starts with a lawyer answering the questions of law students. A mainstream Bollywood film inspired by #metoo movement, Section 375, is a low budget movie, and has an absence of big names.

It is based on section 375 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with cases of rape and sexual assault. Anjali Dangle (Meera Chopra) a costume assistant of a movie is allegedly raped by Director Rohan Khurana (Rahul Bhat). The public prosecutor Hiral Gandhi (Richa Chadha) presents a strong case as per rules of law, demanding maximum punishment for the accused. Expectedly, defence lawyer Tarun Saluja (Akshay Khanna) pleads “not guilty” for his client and gives reasons that possessiveness and subsequent revenge as a motive for the consensual sex affair gone wrong.

The screenplay is not in the form of documentary, it is a proper commercial format. There are no songs because the script didn’t demand any. Setup is mostly indoors with the maximum time is spent in the courtroom. Kudos to the casting director who got perfect and right peoples for the roles. Akshay Khanna essays such roles effortlessly and impressively. Richa Chaddha is somehow not impressive. She lacked the required firepower.

The nemesis of the movie is its script. It is very much predictable and weak. I am not well skilled with the law but both Akshay Khanna, as well as Richa Chadha, seemed to have things very much easy for them, the cross-examinations, pieces of evidence or testimonies. There is no doubt that Indian laws are lopsided towards the victim in cases of sexual assault despite which such crime is still widely prevalent in India. However, a small section of society is misutilising this law by portraying consensual sex as rape, done for blackmailing.

The state of accused in such cases is even worse because of lifelong social stigma, family life shattered & perception-based media trial. Little do they know that such false accusations cases caste shadow and delay justice for genuine cases. The movie also highlights another morally dilemmatic issue: use of position or power to indirectly influence an individual to offer sexual favours for collecting professional gains. Section 375 has the right intention, throwing proper facts & raising relevant questions, but goes in the wrong direction midway while striking a balance between judicial right & moral righteousness. It fails to ignite the passion or feeling meant for such flicks. Purely, from a cinematic point of view, we have seen better dramas and far superior arguments in Hindi cinema. Hence, unless you have a special interest in the subject or don’t miss courtroom battles, this movie might not impress you that much.

After watching the movie, I felt that what the lawyer said concluded the message of the movie and the reason behind the title. More importantly, I felt that scene happened after the main incidents and court proceedings. After the court proceedings started, I thought that there are no loopholes in this case as solid evidence were charged against the accused that can't be misinterpreted. Tarun's defence advice started finding flaws with the police investigation and other issues (I thought it as mere theory set up for bail). But the issue changed in 2nd half. The Facts turned out to a planned trap and writer Manish Gupta narrates a possibility of misusing the law. Dialogues were nice especially the words between the pieces of advice in break time. Background music was optimistic and good enough. Things on paper towards climax could have been made more effective on screen especially the major twist. I felt a bit hurrying end. Section 375 says us to think from the other side of perspective for any case (even though the case can be one-sided at a glance) to retain justice. I don't know how many will accept the climax because was somehow expected. This movie has the power of gaining watch time as u will not be bored, and to know the climax, I want that you to watch this courtroom thriller.

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