Raising the banner of revolt

Shuddhi
Kannada (A) ¬¬¬
Cast: Niveditha, Lauren
Sparton, Amrutha Karagada, Shashank Purushottam,
Siddhartha Maadhyamika, Ajay Raj
Director: Adarsh Eshwarappa

Women centric films flood Sandalwood this week. Coincidentally, both Urvi and Shuddhi have three women protagonists, joining forces, fighting against a system that treats them in callous, commodified manner. Shuddhi tackles the disturbing issue of rape and how offenders go scot free due to loopholes in criminal justice system while victims suffer the horrifying deed perpetrated on them. As one protagonist observes a woman gets raped in India every twenty minutes.

The film is inspired by real life incidents, including Nirbhaya case, which roused the natio­n’s conscience and Bengaluru’s ATM episode among ot­hers. It speaks of how protagonists tackle incidents in individual ways. If Jyothi, journa­list and aspiring theatre per­son, raises mass movement scripting and enacting street plays on the issue of juvenile offe­nders, Karlyn, US photojournalist, in Bengaluru, in search of wrong doers against his friend, seeking closure, ferrets them out dealing with her tragedy.

Divya (played by Melbourne-based Amrutha Karagada), another journalist, bridge between the two, joining the fight against crimes against their ilk. A debutant film-maker, Adarsh, too, like Urvi’s  Varma, goes for stylised form of cinematic narrative.

With craft getting better of thematic treatment, Shuddhi, which kindled a lot of buzz, falls tad short of expectations. Adarsh falls prey to thriller format with a criminal on the run, than better scripting of serious subject. The cast come up with competent performances. Cinematography by Andrew Aiello and background score by Jesse Clinton provide pep to proceedings. Despite inherent flaws, both Urvi and Shuddhi are best bet with debutants providing meaningful cinemas on marquee.