Nirbhoya movie review: An ill-crafted, ill-intentioned film lacking any semblance of logic or decency

(Our software does not permit us to show less than 0.25 stars in the rating graphic above. Please note that the actual rating given to this film by our critic is 0 stars.) In recent memory, no incident has shaken our nation to such an extent as the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old young woman in the streets of South Delhi on the night of 16 December, 2012. The subsequent death of the victim, who came to be widely known in the media simply as ‘Nirbhaya’ – the fearless one – led to widespread and unprecedented public outrage as the entire country came together to ask one simple but pertinent question – how safe are women in a country like India? [caption id=“attachment_5142441” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Nirbhoya. Image via YouTube screengrab[/caption] Six years after the incident took place, director Milan Bhowmik’s film Nirbhoya alludes to the horrific incidents of that night – although a disclaimer claims that the film has nothing to do with the notorious Nirbhaya case. Which I am glad it does, because the film is so awfully bad that it would have been a travesty to have this sham of a film exist in the annals of film history as a cinematic report of such heinous and yet so significant an event in the shining new version of India. I am not going to dignify the film with a lengthy review, so here’s the crux of it, in bullets (I intend my pun in all fury). • The film has no less sleaze than the one on the minds of perpetrators of such crimes. I have neither the inclination nor the guts to get into details. • It manages to make rank fools out of such talented actors as Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Ashish Vidyarthi and Kharaj Mukhopadhyay – making them look bad on screen in manners I had never imagined possible in even my worst nightmares. • There is not one – not a single good scene in the film. Nor does it have any semblance of logic. Or art. Or decency. Or ethics. Or anything else that is even bordering good in the earth that the kind Lord has created. • Even if I were to suspend my opinion about the voice of the film and the message it delivers for a couple of hours – even then – as a film, Nirbhoya is so outrageously foolish and ill-crafted and worst of all – ill-intentioned – that it becomes a pain to sit through it. This is the most devilish, most tortuous and vilest possible manifestation of what we film critics call the hazards of our occupation. • The makers of the film – which shouts from the rooftops and preaches lessons on the modesty and dignity of women – has precious much to learn about respecting women. • What the film is – in the garb of being ‘socially relevant’ cinema – is essentially a sub-par, B-grade, sleazy collection of amateurishly shot and atrociously acted scenes whose sole objective is to cash in on the incident that rocked our nation. Had the intentions of the makers been any different, they would have chosen to treat the women with a little more respect in a film about rape. I don’t usually say this, because I am aware that there are livelihoods at stake, but then I’m human too, so here’s my verdict – stay away from this obnoxious film. You will do yourself, and all of humanity, a great service.