Anubhav Sinha’s Assi is a hard-hitting reflection of our times. But before we speak of the film, it is necessary to revisit 2012-  the year the world was predicted to end. While memes about apocalypse theories flooded timelines, India was shaken by something far more real-  the Nirbhaya case. A young woman was brutally gang-raped and murdered in the national capital. The crime pushed citizens onto the streets and forced the system to respond. The perpetrators were eventually sent to prison. The story was retold on screen many times.

But Nirbhaya was not an isolated case. The years that followed saw repeated, equally brutal if not more heinous crimes against women. Over time, the shock faded. It no longer jolted beyond a brief gasp. It became a statistic.