‘Assi’ Exposes A Society That Fails Its Rape Victims
Film director Anubhav Sinha returns with his new film Assi. The film’s first screening was held on Friday at PVR, Connaught Place, Delhi. It is not an easy watch; it raises questions that can shake you to the core. Rarely has Hindi cinema shown the courage to deal with an issue as grave as rape with such honesty and seriousness.
Anubhav Sinha, who began his career with commercial films like Tum Bin, Dus, and Ra.One, has already demonstrated his ability to examine sensitive social issues through films like Mulk and Article 15. Assi appears to be a further extension of the same stream.
The film releases on February 20. Writing about it before the release may seem like a spoiler, but it really isn’t. In his interactions with the media, Sinha has made it clear in the trailer what audiences are coming to watch. The difference is: if the trailer feels like a single-angle shot, the full film unfolds like a multi-layered narrative. In Hindi cinema, rape has often been used as a formulaic plot device. Assi, however, stands apart because of the sensitivity and depth with which it examines the issue.
After watching the film, you remain in a state of shock for a long time. It forces you to confront how hollow the inner layers of the society we live in really are. The film portrays the pain of a rape survivor—but the story is not limited to just one victim. Against this backdrop, the film investigates the issue from every possible angle.
Assi—the title refers to the official average number of rape cases reported daily in the country. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), on an average, 86 rape cases were daily registered in 2021—one every 20 minutes. And these were the cases that made it to police records; the unreported numbers will remain hidden from public data. From six-month-old infants to 80-year-old women—no one is spared. Every 20 minutes, the film reminds you that somewhere, another incident has already occurred. Every time that number appears on screen, it tugs one’s conscience. At one point, the survivor herself says that more than 30,000 girls and women endure this pain every year—enough to fill an entire stadium.
Her pain deepens further when she tells the court that while the face she sees in the mirror is still her own, what has changed inside her—where does she go to complain about that?
Unlike typical masala films, Assi does not attempt to offer easy solutions. It simply confronts you with a terrifying reality. The survivor is a schoolteacher. The very students she once taught turn her trauma into memes. Ninth-grade children make obscene comments about her in social messaging groups. When the school principal reveals this, the pain is clearly visible on both their faces. The principal asks, “What are we really teaching—debate, dance, medicine, IIT? But where are we heading?” That question lingers, echoing in everyone’s ears.
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The film also does not advocate killing the rapist, or similar Bollywood bravado. Instead, it confronts the truth that this cannot be a solution. Punishing one or two culprits will not end the problem. How do we eliminate the mindset that leads to such crimes? In one scene, the director explains that killing can never be heroic. It may sometimes feel necessary, but it is never heroic. Yet, he also presents the contradiction—that in certain circumstances, the killing of the guilty seems unavoidable. Still, the film makes one thing absolutely clear: capital punishment is not the solution.
Assi does not provide answers; it sparks a debate. It calls for social change, without prescribing a clear path for it. Perhaps that was never the director’s intention. All he wants is for us not to shut our eyes. A dialogue is necessary—and maybe the road to change begins there.
After the screening, actress Taapsee Pannu echoed the same sentiment. The film makes powerful use of poet Uday Prakash’s verses. Taapsee repeated the lines:
A dead man does not think
Nor does a dead man speak up
Perhaps, when a man cannot think or speak up
The man can be declared dead
Taapsee plays the lawyer fighting the rape survivor’s case, and she convincingly portrays the frustration, anger, and exhaustion of a woman lawyer battling the system. When she says in court that true justice will only be delivered the day a woman can step off the metro at night without fear while walking home, the audience feels that pain with her.
Kerala actress Kani Kusruti brings the survivor’s agony vividly to life. Renowned actress Revathi plays the woman judge presiding over the case, powerfully portraying the helplessness of accepting fabricated evidence despite knowing the truth. Actors like Kumud Mishra, Zeeshan Ayyub, and Manoj Pahwa do full justice to their roles. Naseeruddin Shah, Supriya Pathak Shah, and Seema Pahwa also appear, leaving a strong impact despite their brief screen time.
There is only one point where Anubhav Sinha seems to falter. The presentation of facts is so forceful that storytelling occasionally takes a backseat, and at times the film feels almost like a documentary. But perhaps that was necessary—for the story the film needed to tell.
(Amit Sharma is an academician and a media professional)
