Article 15

·         The movie is good and bad. Good parts first but why I call some of it is bad that it has done great disservice to the cause it espouses despite being able to capture some nuances very well.

·         Sleepy north Indian rural milleue with its poverty and infrastructure has been depicted quite accurately, especially government hospital or government residence. In a small town ( overgrown village) the so called gentry consists of business persons and sundry government officials as shown in movie. The new IPS who is essentially a transplant from an alien environment ( not from same state but also the culture ) gets shock and is treated by local people exactly the same way as shown in movie. A seemingly innocuous man like bodyguard of addnl SP who is himself shown involved in the crime , or one fiery village woman who dares to speak truth, or how post-mortem can be manipulated at government hospitals, or how SP deliberately leaks news to media or local businessman tries to get cosy with SP is pretty accurate and shows script write have ear to grounds. The way politician of both sides unite and how victim of dalit community don’t get help from leader of their community is pretty accurate.

·         Sadly though good things end here. First movie tries to allude to a real life incident which was actually an honor killing by the family of the victims in UP. Movie strings together various crimes from all over India over different periods of time in a single time frame in a single place painting a picture of doomsday. The SC police inspector is shown taking orders from dominant caste senior which is so patently false. The sad truth is police is divided across caste lines and more often than now whoever is in position of power plays saviour for people of his caste.

·         The SP must have cleared UPSC, got trained for a year and then at least 2 years in field before becoming SP and his incredulity at surroundings is simply laughable especially when asking who is which caste as the very exam he would have appeared inot and training he would gone through constantly reinforces these ideas.

·         Robin hood of the village who does nothing but sermonises is as unreal as moon in daytime and no demonstration, dharna or morcha by public or family of victim is not what happens in reality.

·         Overall the mood picture paints and especially the cinematography is very good, performance wise people shine in their role, especially corrupt policeman, businessman, lady doctor, assistant police officers , Ayushman acts well but his role is not written perfectly and so is issue with robin hood and his love interest.

·         Overall one should watch the movie but remember that it is fictional and substantial part of it never happens in real.