Article 15
Year: 2019
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip. The same thing has happened about the lofty promise offered by Indian Constitution’s haloed Article 15 promising no discrimination between people on the basis of religion, race, caste, gender or birthplace. More than 70 years post-Independence, the so-called modern India still continues to grapple with many serious social discrimination issues based on some archaic diktats. Anubhav Sinha’s latest film makes a stinging commentary on that bitter truth.

What’s the plot?

A suave, young Europe-returned IPS officer takes charge of a non-descript small-town police station in India’s hinterland. Immediately he starts to realize that the India he is witnessing there is a far cry from India in his romanticized notions. The caste-based social cracks are evident in every day-to-day act and most of the people there have accepted those things either as some eternal truths or matters of fate.

The things come to a head when three scheduled cast schoolgirls disappear and two of them are found dead, hanging on a tree. The local police term them ‘honor killings’ and round up the girls’ fathers as the main accused! The newly appointed officer though is not convinced with his subordinates’ report and decides to dig deeper. Many feathers will now be ruffled, and many skeletons will start tumbling out of the cupboards. With its serious social and political implications, the case turns into a volcano which has erupted!

Verdict

Ayushmann Khurrana (whose film-selection once again is spot on!), Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra and a host of other talented actors have delivered some eminently watchable performances, but this film essentially belongs to the director and the writer.

After meandering through his directorial career with some unremarkable crowd-chasing films like Tum Bin, Cash and Ra One, (and one sleek spy thriller Dus), Anubhav Sinha has found his métier as a film-maker with a strong conscientious voice. His Mulk was a brilliant film for the way it exposed the religion-based fault-lines and Article 15 does even better when tackling the caste-system.

The writers (Gaurav Solanki and Anubhav Sinha) have come up with a cutting-edge script and dialogues. The story inspired by many real-life headline events isn’t a dreary docudrama. It unfolds like an edge-of-the-seat mystery thriller. Dissecting Indian caste-system’s socio-political complexities and contradictions to expose the harsh ground realities in such a format requires a subtle yet surefooted, sensitive approach; and Article 15 manages to do that well. Caste-based hierarchy, corruption, atrocities, political interference, travesty of justice, fake cases and ‘encounters’, public apathy, communal voting pattern - the film takes many thorny issues head- on without taking a preachy activist tone. Its hard-hitting message is often cleverly delivered using dark humor.

Some critics might be terming it to be a copy of the 1988 Hollywood classic Missisipi Burning but for me, Article 15 has enough originality and substance to be considered a standalone Indian movie milestone.

Article 15 is a thought-provoking eye-opener to many unseen, unspoken or unnoticed unjust things that still go on unchecked in our beloved country. It often leaves you shaken and numb. The grey gloomy frame where the police and the bystanders are watching the two young girls’ dead bodies hanging from a tree is the one burning picture that stays in your mind, making you wonder why some things never change in this ever-changing world!

Rating

 4 stars