Movie Review : Guilty

Rating : 2.8/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2020
Running time : 1 hour 59 minutes
Director : Ruchi Narain
Cast : Kiara Advani, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, Taher Shabber, Gurfateh Pirzada, Niki Walia, Dalip Tahil Manu Rishi chaddha
Kid rating : PG-15

Guilty is produced by Dharmatic, which is – very obviously 🙂 – Dharma Productions’s digital arm. It stars Kiara Advani as cool song-writing college girl Nanki Dutta who finds her singer boyfriend “VJ” (Gurfateh Pirzada) accused of rape. This movie is an attempt to strike a chord with the #MeToo movement, but doesn’t quite get there.

Once the accusation goes public (the victim tweets it out), VJ’s politician dad hires a lawyer. Danish Ali Baig (Taher Shabber), one of the lawyer’s team, begins to interview everyone involved to get at the truth, and much of the story is told through the perspectives of these witnesses who chat informally with Danish.

The film touches upon issues of class and privilege, and victim-judging. The girl making the accusation, Tanu Kumar (Kapoor) is from a small town – Dhanbad, and she very obviously wants to hook-up with the privileged and wealthy college heart-throb; she’s seen pawing him publicly. Tanu is also not the most likeable or reliable character – she’s abrasive and lies when it suits her. When she comes out with her accusation, not everyone believes her.

The bohemian Nanki is smart and a Rhodes scholar, but is an unreliable narrator, plagued by her own securities. The film can’t get its characters straight – Nanki wavers and doesn’t display the truth-seeking someone as egalitarian as her would. If there are other issues influencing her they are never fully realized on screen. Tanu wavers also but we don’t get to see her as up-close as Nanki. Danish’s character is so clinically drawn, it’s wooden.

Guilty does do a good job of portraying the double standards in Indian society vis-a-vis sexuality and sexual morality. It is a good message and intent, but unfortunately leaves you unmoved. It is a struggle to sympathize with either woman. The ending is filmi and weak. Bummer!

Kidwise: Sexual violence, cuss words.