BOTTOM LINE
Difficult But Necessary Watch
PLATFORM
ZEE5
RUNTIME
100 Minutes (3 episodes)
What Is the Show About?
Hathras 16 Days is a docuseries about a young Dalit woman’s brutal gang-rape in 2020. When she names her attackers, her truth is buried. Her family’s battle for justice takes a political turn, peaking when authorities conduct a forced, secret late-night cremation. Blending journalistic accounts with recreations, it exposes a corrupt institutional cover-up, deep caste biases, and systemic inequality.
Analysis
Hathras 16 Days is a necessary reminder of the bitter realities of a country that takes pride in its efforts to build smart cities and create more jobs, and in its aims to be a superpower, but still cannot rise above its social barriers to protect the truth of a girl who has been brutally gang-raped. Beyond the crime, the case lays bare the inequalities that deny people the right to lead a life, or even die, with dignity.
The show, a three-episode docu-series directed by Patrick Graham and produced by Docubay for ZEE5, brings together accounts from various sources related to the infamous Hathras gang-rape case in the middle of a raging pandemic that shook the nation’s conscience. Journalists, cops, the victim’s family, Hathras locals, and social activists tell their side of the story while witnessing the chaos around them.
There are many layers to the crime that the show tackles. It addresses how the girl did not receive immediate medical support after the rape, and how her internal examination was delayed after she repeatedly asserted that the men forced themselves upon her. After she passed away, the family was forced to move from pillar to post to claim her body. Ultimately, she was cremated in the night in their absence.
Even nearly 6 years after the incident, like a good documentary about a spine-chilling crime always should, the show leaves you in a state of disgust about the system and social hierarchies. At almost every stage of the investigation, the Hathras case makes headlines for the girl’s Dalit identity rather than the injustice meted out to her.
The narrative is hijacked completely, and the family’s fight for something very basic turns out to be gargantuan, even with journalists, politicians, lawyers and activists joining them. The show reveals how all of them are engaged in their own battles: the media in covering the post-death drama, cops trying to protect the higher castes and bury all the contradictions within the investigation, and politicians making this case about themselves rather than the victim.
The varied accounts expose more or less all the problems associated with the case. Every argument comes with a worthy counter. It’s hard to believe how a clear-cut gang-rape is twisted beyond imagination, where bureaucratic delays destroy every chance of the perpetrators being punished. It is also framed as a case of honour-killing at one point, fabricating evidence of an affair between a rapists and the victim.
The documentary also discusses the urgency and sensitivity that journalists need to exhibit in high-profile cases, making instinctive choices that help protect the truth. While one may blame the media often for their exaggerated coverage of crime, the show reminds us how their presence can go a long way in making those in power answerable, even if, in this case, justice is denied.
As a journalist returns to the village five years after the crime, it is painful to realise how little has changed in Hathras. A monetary compensation was arranged to calm the nerves of the victim’s family for the time being, but the job promised to a family member has yet to be provided. The social media and news channel debates have conveniently shifted, but the wounds of this incident continue to haunt.
Hathras 16 Days is a difficult but important, hard-hitting watch. It pushes us to pause for a moment as we doomscroll our way towards the next headline. It may not tell you what you already don’t know, but it puts things in perspective sensitively.
Music and Other Departments?
Despite the sensational nature of the case, the narrative never veers into exaggeration or melodrama, relying solely on personal accounts, which are dissected, analysed, and counter-argued from every alternative perspective. While the editing is slick and sharp, maintaining pace and precision, it leaves no stone unturned to depict the truth with an unflinching spirit.
The series effectively uses extensive media footage from 2020, shot on various devices, including scenes from the village, captured by the cinematographer Harshbir Singh Phull.
Highlights?
Pays adequate attention to detail
Makes it pacy and intriguing despite the facts being well-documented in the past
Slick editing, varied accounts
Drawbacks?
At times, the show becomes more about the media-politician circus than the victim
Some perspectives appear rushed
The script could have had more layers while probing into the social fabric of the village
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Definitely, in case hard-hitting, gritty documentaries suit your palette
Hathras 16 Days Docuseries Reviewed by M9 News
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