Section 375 | A Legal Thriller | Movie Review

While hundreds of movies released every year, not all of them are worth watching. Apart from the money you need to spend for the ticket of the same (or subscription charges you pay directly or indirectly to watch it on you TV or any other media), the time you need to spend is also a considerable factor. As you can earn the money back through various ways, time is the sacred commodity that can only be spent!

So, you have to be choosy. But, the problem here is, how to know if the movie is worth watching or not, without watching it!? Well, genuine and unbiased reviews can help you there. Of course, you should filter out the list of movies based on your choice of genres and the feed you’ve receive before reading reviews.

Recently, we got a chance to watch a Hindi Movie – Section 375. And, we found it worth sharing reviews for. From our team, here I am sharing my personal thoughts about it.

The movie was in fact on our radar since a while, recently I got a chance to watch it on Amazon Prime Video. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you also can watch it there for Free!

Section 375 film talks about a very important law, IPC 375. You can find the exact definition of the rule in the Government of India’s official list of all the rules. It empowers women against molestation and sexual abuse. Like with any other rules/laws it is also found misused in various cases. The movie explores a case revolving around Section 375 justifying its title.

The movie starts with Tarun Saluja [Akshaye Khanna] delivering an interesting speech to law students. Not a single word of this session is missable. The dialog writer has paid attention to write to each and every word very carefully. Be it the reference of the “Nirbhaya case” or any other advice Tarun is giving to aspiring lawyers, everything moves forward in a controlled manner.

The scene is followed by Anjali Damle [Meera Chopra] getting ready to going somewhere. We can see a typical middle-class environment in which she lives. The way her character and her family and their surrounding is explored shows a real middle-class set up in a very convincing manner. The way the details appear on screen, including her mother having a small chat with her, her father getting his medicines and Anjali saying him bye, Anjali’s brother washing his rikshaw and a neighbour girl talking to Anjali; all these things, not only explores the way of living of a typical middle class family and the social environment, but all these people in the scene conclude another scene pretty effectively. So, paying attention to this will give you deja-vu feeling later.

She visits Rohan Khurana [Rahul Bhat], a well-known figure in the film industry. You should pay attention towards Anjali’s commute and you will see how a different world appears gradually. She has started from a very humble setup from where she walked up to the shore to take a ferry and after landing, she took an auto-rickshaw to visit a posh area. You can also see her untieing her hair while entering the lift of the building where Rohan lives. If you pay attention to all these scenes, you will understand the quality of the rest of the movie and what you should expect (in terms of quality).

I will not reveal, what happened at Rohan’s home, but, we find Anjali lodging a formal complaint against Rohan for raping her. It leads to a court case where Tarun and Hiral Gandhi [Richa Chaddha] are the lawyers. Tarun represented Rohan’s side while Hiral is representing Anjali. What happens in the court and how these things affect the personal lives of the people associated and their families, is better to explore on the screen.

Writing a legal thriller movie is quite a challenging job. You have to remain as faithful as possible to law and its representation, especially when you are trying to explore a sensitive topic like rape. The scriptwriter did a really nice job here. Also, the dialogs in the film are really interesting. You can find some interesting lines like:

We’re in the business of the law, not in the business of justice.

Never fall in love with the law, it’s a jealous mistress. And one day, it will disappoint you.

Law is not equal to justice. Justice is an ideal and law is a tool to get it.

Every false accusation of rape is another nail in the coffin of an actual rape victim

Justice is abstract, law is a fact.

As you can see, you expect an engaging courtroom drama with hard-hitting lines. And, you are not disappointed at all. The movie has emotional quotient also. I like the way all the characters are explored. You will like the detachment and wisdom in Tarun’s character, the rebel in Hiral’s character, the fighting spirit of Anjali’s character, typical mentality in Anjali’s brother character, sentimental angle of Tarun’s wife’s character and opportunist attitude of Rohan’s character. Some characters are small at length but adds positively to the film, like that of Tarun’s daughter.

In terms of acting the film belongs to Akshaye Khanna supported nicely by Meera Chopra. Kishore Kadam and Krutika Desai as judges, Sandhya Mridul and Shriswara as the protective wives are performances that add value to the script. I am disappointed with Richa Chaddha’s performance, who otherwise gave some fantastic performances. She looks like a model and not a lawyer, she must have had worked hard on her body language.

While this film doesn’t have a scope of typical Bollywood songs, you don’t miss them in this film either :). The background music is really a positive attribute of the film. It adds positively to the impact of the film.

The film has punches on the mindset of orthodox people and is progressive in nature. What I like is the end of the film. It concludes in the best possible way. Of course, you may not find it ending in an “ideal way”. But, the society we live in is not having an ideal environment. And, “poetic justice” is also an important phenomenon. Remember, all wounds don’t leave visible scars.

Summary:

A nicely written, well-executed film having some really fantastic performance. If you love legal thrillers, you will enjoy this movie for sure.

Over To You:

Did you watch the movie? Or Are you planning to watch it? Which part of the movie do you like the best? What is the most effective scene of the movie according to you? Is there anything you want to share about this movie or this article? Are you going to purchase it when available on DVD? Do not hesitate, go ahead and leave your comments below. And yes, do not forget to share this article with your friends over various social networks via Twitter, Facebook and others. And yes, you may like to subscribe to our RSS feeds and follow us on various Social networks to get the latest updates for the site to land right in your mail box.