<img style="float: left;" src="http://admin.mid-day.com/images/2026/feb/Mayank-Shekhar-new_e.jpg" alt="Mayank Shekhar" width="150" height="76" />To think of it &mdash; for a film about rape, the most startling image in it isn&rsquo;t of the incident itself. But that moment, the survivor suddenly pulls off her facial cover in the courtroom!&nbsp;
The <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/in-your-defense-22840209" rel="nofollow">defense </a>lawyer looks away. As if he saw a ghost. So could the audience (they won&rsquo;t).&nbsp;
This snapshot&rsquo;s also in the trailer of the absolutely absorbing, Assi (opens in theatres this Friday), by director Anubhav Sinha, who admits to me, he &ldquo;drifted from norms of legal proceedings&rdquo; for that scene.&nbsp;
The point gets swiftly made. It&rsquo;s not the survivor, who should be hiding their head in shame; no?&nbsp;
That face belongs to the aptly cast, Kani Kusruti (All We Imagine As Light), who has such an everywoman quality about her. Yet, it&rsquo;s impossible look away, when she&rsquo;s onscreen, whether or not behind a veil.
<img src="http://admin.mid-day.com/images/2026/feb/Anubhav-Sinha-aa_e.jpg" alt="Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha" width="1280" height="720" /> Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha
She plays a schoolteacher. In the urban jungle of Delhi&rsquo;s dark alleys, claustrophobic cubbyholes, a bunch of beasts hunting in a Toyota SUV, prey on her, and push her off, like dead meat, once done.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s a briefly brutal sequence. The film follows the aftermath of this rape.
What strikes you about Assi is it isn&rsquo;t a film hiding behind needless subtleties and ironies, or even going extra to look/sound clever.
Sinha shows it as he sees it. He unflinchingly underlines his purpose. Which is what makes it so powerfully mainstream.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s straight from the heart. The skill was in the editing to ensure [the narrative] remains relentlessly engaging. Are there dull moments?&rdquo; Sinha asks. Hell, no!
He co-wrote the script with Gaurav Solanki (Article 15). But a collab hardly written about is between the director, and his DoP.&nbsp;
As in the Irish-origin, Bristol-bred cinematographer from New York, Ewan Mulligan, who&rsquo;s shot Assi. As he did Sinha&rsquo;s IC 184 (2024), Anek (2022), Article 15 (2019), Mulk (2018).&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s much to be moved by <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/o-romeo-box-office-shahid-kapoor-starrer-crosses-rs-20-crore-on-valentines-day-23616718" rel="nofollow">Mulligan&rsquo;s camera</a>, as a character itself, that flits between close-ups in the courtroom, captures vast starkness of the nation&rsquo;s capital; indeed, few rare shots too, such as the Delhi Metro tracks from the driver&rsquo;s seat&hellip;
Sinha found Mulligan through his line-producer in Scotland, while looking for a local cinematographer for Tum Bin 2 (2016).&nbsp;
He recalls, &ldquo;[Mulligan] was [simply] doing a job then. He&rsquo;s a very political mind. And knows more India now than most Indians! We really became collaborators with Mulk.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Before which, Sinha himself was a very different kinda filmmaker (Ra.One, Cash, Dus).&nbsp;
Like Mulk (on religious segregation), Assi, also starring Taapsee Pannu as lawyer, is primarily a courtroom drama &mdash; although it plays out more like a Kafkaesque police/legal procedural, for a pulsating thriller.&nbsp;
In order to truly feel the story, Sinha confesses, he had to genuinely think like a woman, first.&nbsp;
Pannu has to do no such thing. Her breathless pauses say it all in the courtroom. Previously, Pannu&rsquo;s led Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury&rsquo;s Pink (2016), on a woman&rsquo;s right to consent, with the iconic line, &ldquo;No means no.&rdquo; Also, Sinha&rsquo;s Thappad (2020), on marital violence/disrespect.&nbsp;
Refined, reserved Revathi plays the judge in Assi. Back in the day, she starred in Mouna Ragam (1986), about arranged marriage, post a heartbreak that, if viewed from a more feminist lens today, feels like a deeply problematic film (I&rsquo;m sorry, Mani Ratnam fans).&nbsp;
As for rape-survivors, the most understated, underrated, since largely unwatched Indian film on the subject that I&rsquo;ve loved, is Pradip Kurbah&rsquo;s Onaatah (2016) in Khasi language. Rajkumar Santoshi&rsquo;s Damini (1993), of course, remains the most popular.&nbsp;
To give a sense of how confident the filmmakers feel about Assi, it was shown to the Mumbai press a week before release, with the director and cast travelling to multiple cities/towns hosting screenings for sample&nbsp; audiences since.&nbsp;
Sinha says, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll be surprised to know, this (super-early press show) was [producer] Bhushan Kumar&rsquo;s idea. He even asked for [review] embargo to be lifted&hellip;&rdquo; I am surprised. Kumar has also produced blockbusters like Animal, Kabir Singh.&nbsp;
An issue with examining rape-culture is how it&rsquo;s impossible to nail/blame one thing for it. I once wrote a piece for The New York Times, linking it to India&rsquo;s popular culture, but withdrew it subsequently, realising how that infantilised such a complicated phenomenon.&nbsp;
Sinha does well to touch upon several aspects; pop-culture (casual trolls/jokes, Bhojpuri + &lsquo;Fevicol&rsquo; songs), included. He says the film isn&rsquo;t based on a particular story &mdash; but several, that also involved conversations with&nbsp; psychologists, survivors&hellip;&nbsp;
Sinha&rsquo;s film company is called <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/special-mumbai-banaras-train-to-operate-on-sunday-timings-halts-and-booking-details-23607468" rel="nofollow">Benaras</a>. His film&rsquo;s titled Assi. The reference isn&rsquo;t to the holy city&rsquo;s last ghat.
But to the stats that state, assi/80 rapes, on average, take place in India, daily. Paradoxically, it also signifies greater registration of sexual crimes that have traditionally been under-reported.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Especially, with molestation cases,&rdquo; Sinha says, while struck by the 80-figure. With the urgency of a news channel, a red screen flashes throughout Assi to suggest another 20 minutes have passed; a fresh rape.
According to National Crime Records Bureau data (2018-19), even that number is 81 rapes in India. Every day. And 30 per cent convictions!&nbsp;
No, seriously. How can you look away?
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com The views expressed in this column are the individual&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t represent those of the paper.

What’s it about Anubhav Sinha’s latest, pulsating thriller that must draw you into theatres this Friday? 

Assi nabbe poore sau per cent truth!

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Assi nabbe poore sau per cent truth!

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