Subhash K Jha re-examines Ajay Bahl’s MenToo movie Section 375 which released in 2019
Nothing is as it seems in Section 375. Except that a filmmaker who is convicted may be guilty of some other crime altogether. A very pretty Maharashtrian girl steps out of her humble home to go to her workplace when a neighbour shouts out, ‘Ae Madhuri Dixit.’
In the next ten minutes this girl Anjali, played by the lovely and effective Meera Chopra, will be raped by her boss, an arrogant film director (played with agonizing efficacy by Rahul Bhat) who speaks to his associates on the set as though they were vermins and parasites born to serve and be abused.
In the next five minutes this jerk of a filmmaker will be arrested and tried for rape.
But did he really commit the crime? The question hangs thick in the narrative, circling the tense courtroom drama provocatively, letting us know that when it comes to sexual allegations, nothing is what it seems. Madhur Bhandarkar will vouch for that. As would Shiney Ahuja.
The trial comes later. Right now Anjali is at the police station with her mother trying to register an FIR against the man who raped her. The officer in-charge asks leery invasive question in the effort to dissuade Anjali from taking her violator to task. But she braves it out. Answers the sleazy puerile questions: did the man ejaculate inside her, etc etc? It is not a film or those who like their cinema over dinner.
Here I must say Meera Chopra plays the victim card close to her chest. She is being violated repeatedly by being reminded of her rape. Her predicament is projected in this dark yet uplifting tale of justice as opposed to the law in a light so ambivalent, it becomes hard to tell whether she is a victim or a perpetrator.
Section 375 is suffused with brilliant performances, none more more brilliant than Akshaye Khanna as the alleged rapist’s defence lawyer. Every twitch of Khanna’s facial muscles is priceless. His legal eagle character doesn’t make a mockery of justice. But he comes so close to deconstructing the prosecution’s case he seems to enjoy lusting in the loopholes of the legal system.
In opposition, Richa Chadha finds it hard to stand up against Khanna’s lumbering legalese in the court. And mind it, Khanna is just as good outside the courtroom with his screen wife Sandhya Mridyul in a bathroom sequence where he suggests they “make twins” there and then.
While deconstructing the rape theory director Ajay Bahl (blessedly back after the bold BA Pass) makes some room for questioning a system that blindly accepts the woman’s allegations in a rape case. The film’s morally ambiguous ending will appal some MeToo supporters.
Bahl and his writer Manish Gupta don’t shy away from wetting their feet in muddy waters. The narrative sticks its head out as far as possible not afraid to face the repercussions. This is a film that was waiting to be made. Relevant and rousing in its synthesis of polemics and plain rabble rousing.
Manish Gupta who scripted Section 375 feels the film is more relevant now than ever before. “I am proud that my film Section 375 has had a long-lasting impact not only on Indian cinema but on Indian society as a whole. The film held a mirror to the shocking fact that 80% of all rape cases filed in India are fake. This is an ironic situation given the high number of genuine rape cases in India. Genuine rape survivors are the worst affected by fake cases because each fake case casts a shadow of doubt over the testimony of a genuine rape survivor. The experience of scripting the film was an exhausting one, I’d got the idea many years ago when actor Shiney Ahuja was arrested for allegedly raping his maid servant. I was visiting Shiney’s house regularly interacting with him and his wife Anupam Ahuja, since I was supposed to do a film with Shiney at that time. When Shiney was arrested, that film obviously couldn’t get made, and I started scripting Section 375 based on Shiney’s case. It took me three years to write the script during which I carried out rigorous research. The research was key to the script. I attended 180 court case hearings across lower courts in Mumbai and also at the Bombay high court. There are three courtrooms specially reserved for only rape cases at one of the lower courts in Mumbai. Yes, the number of registered rape cases are that high in Mumbai alone. At these courts, I met many criminal lawyers, judges, court staff members, rape survivors, accused rapists, many of who were innocent. My interactions with these people largely contributed to the script. While Bollywood needs its own Hema committee to curb sexual harassment of women, Bollywood also needs its own Dharmendra committee to protect men from fake accusers! The misuse of sex as a weapon is rampant in Bollywood. Men use their power and influence to gain sexual favours from women, but women also use their sexual charm as a bargaining chip to get cast in a particular film or to gain entry into a particular camp. “Taali ek haath se nahin bajti”. While many men in Bollywood are exploiters and sexual predators, an equal amount of women are cock-teasers and seductresses. There needs to be a body in Bollywood that protects innocent people from both genders from malafide intentions of a person from the opposite gender.”
