Ajji - A scream against the silence!

Suhansid Srikanth

In the times of Unnao and Kathua.. The power of Ajji is in its emotional nakedness. The sort of authenticity that we shy away from. The details are real and brutal. It doesn't bother in complaining about the societal perspectives a rape is dealt with, silence of the system but the emotional exploitation and the turmoil a family undergoes when one happens. 

The film begins with an old woman prodding through darkness of a slum.. constantly calling 'Manda!'.. searching for her grand daughter. And the story unfolds when she is found, trashed down.. after being raped. The rape of Manda is what the film is centred around. From then, the incident not only affects Manda.. but the whole balance of the family. 

An officer comes to help the poor family.. but much later we get to know that he is no good. He works for the rapist, Dhawle. He keeps insisting the family to show him the wound. At one moment.. He can't digest it for a second. But yet he looks at it back. He comforts them to give up the idea of filing a case. He even mentions that he has a little daughter. The investigation doesn't even take place in a station like we used to see in Anurag Kashyap's films. It happens in their very own house. But the 'take over' tone of the system is on the face. He threatens them for doing up illegal activities. And he thinks he could shut them up with charges. In a way.. he does! They all silence down. Except for Ajji!

Despite the heavy, slow-burning crime thriller the genre is.. the characters are raw. Good or Bad (or the Evil).. They are all human! Ajji learns butchering fleshes from an old Muslim butcher man. We are hinted that he has sort of an unrequited love for her. This kind of a serene emotion being touched in a film that's this dark and gore is something I've never seen before. Also, the flesh pieces she butchers down are later thrown to street dogs. That bookmarks in the end as well. And how every scene tunnels down! We never get what we are going ahead with. For example, when the officer comes to enquire Dhawle.. we see him being mistreated by Dhawle. He is almost stripteased by his assistant. When asked about how the rape happened.. he is given a lesson with Dhawle's own daughter. 

The spine chilling episode of the film is when Ajji hides and watches out what and who Dhawle is. We are shown he has an assistant who pimps for him. We see them indulging in sex with a human-like dressed up sex toy. The perversion of a human mind the scene tries to capture shooks us. He breaks the hands of the toy, takes the head alone and what not? Somehow, the sex toy metaphorizes for the objectification once for all. As he shut the toy's mouth with his hand.. the image hits us for what it stands for.

Another pivotal character is that of Leela, a prostitute who helps Ajji in tracing down who the rapist is. Later we are shown how another girl from her place gets raped by the same Dhawle. She says no one gets spared even if they are whores. At the end, she dresses up Ajji as a prostitute to trap Dhawle. My favorite moment in the film is by now, where Ajji gestures to bless her before leaving. It is not underlined.. yet we feel it in our heart! 

Sushama Deshpande as Ajji is brilliant. Her inability to do something for her torn up granddaughter is tragically haunting. She keeps visiting a local medicine seller to stop Manda's bleeding. She walks miles and miles despite her knee pain. We could barely read what she is going through. The sequence where she has a conversation with her daughter-in-law is when we get to know she doesn't share a healthy relationship with her son. And it gets ironic when he sings a lullaby for her daughter on how she is the pride of their nest. And look at her face at all these scenes.. her grit and helplessness sets up all the ambience the film needs. Except for one time.. where the film flashbacks to a happy moment.. we don't even see her smiling.  

One thing that stands apart than everything is the sound design and sound editing by Khamod Karade and Aditya Yadav. The eeriness of silence is jarring. It screams out for the silence of the system or perhaps the entire nation. So is Jishnu Bhattacharjee's cinematography. There are couple of moments where we see Manda through the mirror with other characters in a frame. It doesn't pop us a stunning visual or an aesthetic frame.. but it pleads with the tragedy she carries on, one that burdens over the entire film!

Everytime, when a rape happens.. (and these days.. almost everyday) we hear people asking for castration of the rapists. And we do see films now and then taking this note for a shock value. But nothing so far has come closer to how Ajji does it. It traces the much traumatic post-rape phase. It deals with what it takes for a woman to pick a knife instead of glorifying the transformation. And more than anything.. It questions us.. silently.. how safe are our girl children are? 

P.S :  More power to Netflix in India.. for Ajji! If not this.. a film like this would have been missed for sure.