It’s appropriate enough that Guilty, the new Hindi language Indian film released on Netflix happened to land on the weekend of International Women’s Day, given that it essentially serves as a stark reminder of how much work still needs to be done in terms of dismantling patriarchal biases and systems that make it hard for women to get the help they require. As one might potentially infer based on the rather loaded title, Guilty explores rape culture, specifically the way it is ingrained in India, and the damage that can be – and often is – done to people because of it.
The setup for Guilty is all too familiar, even to someone like me who lives in the United States. It’s set in a college campus. A very popular boy, one who not only leads a rising local band, but also comes from a wealthy and powerful family, VJ (Gurfateh Singh Pirzada) is accused of rape in the height of India’s own #MeToo movement. The accuser is a girl, Tanu (Akansha Ranjan Kapoor), who already has a bit of a bad reputation amongst many of the students, and comes from an impoverished background. Naturally, the accusation blows up, and becomes the talk of the town.
From this setup, director Ruchi Narain and her co-writers, Atika Chohan and Kanika Dhillon, takes a rather gutsy approach in telling this story. The first half almost lures you into believing the accusation is false. The entire first half is told from the perspective of the people who benefit the most from the idea of her being a liar. We start with Danish (Taher Shabbir), who is working for the defense team in prepping witnesses for the court, and occasionally the point-of-view will shift over to the film’s true lead, Nanki (Kiara Advani), VJ’s girlfriend, who is struggling to deal with the accusations, doubting whether or not there might actually be some legitimacy to the allegations.
It’s a compelling approach, one that is designed to be frustrating and off-putting, complete with banter between certain characters that pointedly shine a light on how little some people take these kinds of matters seriously. One #MeToo joke coming from a professor sets an icky tone that the film purposefully taps into for much of its runtime. By doing this, the film dissects complacency head-on, and the idea of how people who might theoretically not even be remotely involved in these crimes might still be a part of a greater societal groupthink and attitude that is pulling the country away from progress.
The film takes its sweet time even getting us to Tanu’s perspective, waiting pretty much until the final act for the film to deliver its message, which is oddly enough where the film begins to stumble in its messaging. Apologies in advance if you consider this spoilers, but this isn’t the kind of movie intended to surprise you with anything. The final act deals with a confrontations between Tanu and VJ in a very public space, there’s lots of teary monologues and speechifying, which – while a touch blunt – is fine. However, there is a beat in which a Nanki turns to a male friend, pleading him to reveal the truth about what happened that night because she thinks the people won’t believe the women, but they might believe a man saying he witnessed the rape.
It’s a double edged sword, I suppose. In a sense, this is unfortunately true in many circumstances. The words of men are more likely to be taken seriously than that of a woman. However, it doesn’t do justice to the film’s themes that the final showdown is essentially resolved when a man has to get the ball rolling. On one hand, one could argue it’s essential to show that the “bro-code” is something that needs to be dismantled because of the toxicity that surrounds it and many male friendships, but for this particular story, for this particular time and place, the way the film resolves thematically, on top of the actual plotting already being a bit outrageous at this point, just didn’t quite sit right with me.
Despite these flaws, I still think Guilty makes a solid case for itself as a film that is very much of the moment. It’s an ambitious film, tackling numerous touchy subjects and themes like internalized mysogyny, classism, patriarchal systems, the ups-and-downs of social movements, and the ways a crime this sensitive in nature will affect the lives of everyone involved. In exploring these ideas, the filmmakers bring a lot of nuance, and while it may certainly not be subtle or even totally graceful (I’m reminded of the odd plot thread regarding Ninka’s mental illness, which was not coherently realized), it fully engages with the culture surrounding it in a way that still manages to pack a real, significant punch. I haven’t had much time to catch myself up on how things have been going in India regarding the #MeToo movement there, but while it seems like someone like Harvey Weinstein might actually face some serious jail time here, based on the bit of research that I did, it doesn’t look like many perpetrators in India, except for maybe a handful, were faced with any real consequences for their actions. I don’t expect a film like Guilty to sway an entire culture into being empathetic to victims overnight, but like any good movie, it can at least offer a perspective that will make people think twice the next time they engage in or witness toxic behavior.