Movie Review: Guilty

Look, the foremost purpose of a film is to entertain. Then, there can always be add-ons like social messaging, thought provocativeness, or realism. One cannot simply praise a movie for being cored with a topic even as powerful as MeToo, despite it having a dry and boring plot. It might be offensive to feminists, but a film’s power lies more in its plot and characters than in its message.

Source: Netflix

Directed by Ruchi Narain, the film stars Kiara Advani as Nanki, a girl whose boyfriend is accused of sexual assault, and Taher Shabbir, as a lawyer suspicious of his own clients; among a lot of several other talented actors. Director Ruchi Narain, despite presenting to the audience a promising trailer, couldn’t live up to the revolutionary image that her film had set before the release.

The story follows the arc of Nanki, the lyricist of a college band, whose boyfriend VJ, the college heartthrob, is accused of rape by a small-town girl, at the onset of the MeToo movement in India. Nice premise! But as the plot furthers, you realise that the story is all repetitive. It’s all: I didn’t do anything, she is an attention seeker, she is a whore, and the same old blame game. 

The movie sets up some mysteries and keeps repeatedly relying on them. You will find characters asking questions like: ‘Who is #evillaughter? And What about the blood?’ All throughout the second half. 

Another problem with the film is that it is trying to convey a lot, while not being able to convey even its core message. You would find all sorts of issues being talked about in the film: be it class divide, consensual sex, gender bias, or corrupt politicians; but the film could do justice to none. Yes, the subject of a film is worth giving a thought to, but you can’t call a film worth watching when you know it’s just a social media campaign enacted on screen. 

Although, the film is not all crap. The director has done a fabulous job depicting a coming-of-age story of a group of college youngsters and how a rape accusation can shatter the relationships among them. 

Also, you would find some great performances by the actors. I would say that this might be Kiara Advani’s best performance so far. She has managed to put up quite a realistic depiction of a college millennial, gifted with a creative talent, pushed into a conflicting situation, and burdened by the traumas of her own childhood. She nails the college chic vibes.

Yes, Ruchi Narain understands the method of filmmaking. She knows how to make realistic and believable cinema. But what she lacks is the key element of filmmaking- storytelling. One thing to appreciate the writers for, is the fact that they have managed to create a brief and crisp plot- no unauthentic characters and no irrelevant subplots. Yes, so crisp, that they had to stretch the only plotline they had, into a two hour long film. 

I therefore condense my thoughts, stating that Guilty was a short film, stretched for too long. You can still give it a watch if you prioritize messaging over the content of a film.

I give this film two stars out of five.

-HJ