BOTTOM LINE
This Metoo Thriller Is a Mixed Bag
PLATFORM
Netflix
RUNTIME
110 Mins
What Is the Show About?
Celebrated surgeon Geetika Sen sees her life collapse after anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct surface at her hospital. As an official inquiry begins and social media outrage intensifies, the mounting suspicion creates a severe crisis of trust between Geetika and her partner, Meera. While fighting to save her career, Geetika must navigate a web of secrets and past professional rivalries to prove her innocence.
Performances
Konkona Sen, fresh from her solid performance in Search: The Naina Murder Case, bags a morally complex role where it becomes hard to take sides. Though the writing has its share of problems, she brings an unusual intensity to Geetika, showcasing the price a woman pays to be ambitious and in a position of power.
Laapataa Ladies star Pratibha Ranta delivers an equally confident, assured performance, though you wish the character had a stronger voice. Aditya Nanda and Monica Mahendru provide formidable support to the leads in brief yet impactful parts.
Analysis
The Me Too movement, which empowered people across various genders and social groups to share stories of abuse while naming predators, ignited a storm in India. It forged a rare sense of camaraderie among victims, giving them a belief that their voices could be heard. It is surprising how little representation this has found in Indian cinema and OTT platforms.
Barring films like Guilty and Sudhir Mishra’s Inkaar, which do not qualify as great representations of the movement, no visible effort has been made to document the story from an Indian context. Accused, this week’s Hindi original on Netflix, attempts to set the record straight through a tale set in London of a queer doctor accused of making inappropriate advances to a younger colleague.
Anubhuti Kashyap, who reversed gender equations in Doctor G by giving an entitled male a taste of a woman’s world in a gynaecology department, does something similar here. In Accused, the man is out of the picture. Instead, a female medico deals with the repercussions of sexual misconduct allegations at both home and work.
Placing the story of an Indian lesbian in the West in the wake of the Me Too movement gives some freshness to the backdrop. With the lead couple, Geetika and Meera, the roles of the provider and the nurturer are clearly emphasised. The protagonist, Geetika, is deliciously flawed. She is ambitious, hot-tempered, borderline-insensitive at times, desperate to prove her innocence and still in touch with her ex.
Refreshingly enough, the character’s sexual orientation is not used as a tool to cast aspersions on her. Geetika and Meera’s relationship problems are as universal as they can get, struggling to strike a balance among love, career, and ambition while also tackling emotional availability. As the allegations surface, Meera unearths a side to Geetika she has probably never known, regardless of her innocence in the case.
Geetika’s eagerness to track the motive behind the supposedly fake allegation unleashes a monster in her. Anubhuti never relies on flashbacks but offers glimpses of the person Geetika could be (good, bad, and ugly) and pits her against a male investigator. Beyond the allegations, the story is as much an exploration of the emotional strain in a couple’s relationship, a volcano that’s waiting to burst.
While the narrative is consistently arresting, unmasking the many layers beneath the case, tracking Geetika’s plea for innocence, it doesn’t really make a conscious effort to tap into the sensitivities around appropriate workplace behaviour and attempts to initiate any discussion. In a way, it also undermines the merit of the Me Too movement as a tool that culprits use to get back at a colleague and wreak havoc on their careers.
When all is said and done in the ending, Geetika’s confession about self-introspection does not feel heartfelt. She wants to re-examine what went wrong with the relationship, but everything is sugar-coated into a happy ending. For a major part, the film keeps moving from one reveal to the next so rapidly that you barely sense Geetika’s readiness to change.
The brisk pacing, impressive conflicts, and strong characterisation help Accused to be cinematically engaging, though it leaves you with mixed feelings about what it tries to achieve. It manages to be a gritty take on a tricky case and reasonably thought-provoking, though its purpose remains only half-fulfilled. With the names involved in the show (Konkona Sen and Anubhuti Kashyap), it is only natural to expect more.
Music and Other Departments?
Neel Adhikari’s pulsating score raises the stakes in the narrative organically, without trying hard to make its presence felt. The visual language (the muted colour palette in a tense London setting) is sharp but quite expected for a thriller tackling such a theme in a racy narrative. The film is neatly edited, giving characters the space to grow while also indicating the gravity of the conflict well.
Highlights?
Strong performances
Racy narrative
Few brave choices with the writing
Drawbacks?
Partly insensitive/tone deaf treatment
Not all of its ideas land effectively
The focus on thrills more than self-introspection
Did I Enjoy It?
In parts
Will You Recommend It?
Yes, even if it is not perfect, it merits a viewing for initiating an important conversation on a sensitive topic
Accused Web Series Reviewed by M9 News
