Article 15 is a depiction of the age-old taboo of casteism.
By Kamaal Rashid Khan
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Published: Sat 29 Jun 2019, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Sat 29 Jun 2019, 11:40 PM
Story Article 15 is a story about jaat-paat - a depiction of the age-old taboo of casteism and inequality which is still being practised. Filmed against the backdrop of a remote village in India's Uttar Pradesh, the story is about three girls who are gang-raped, murdered and hanged on a tree because the upper caste wants to terrorize the lower caste villagers and this one of the ways they do it. Ayushman Khurana, who plays a cop, has been assigned to investigate the gory rape-murder case. The story until here is straight forward and it doesn't go beyond this. Just that the case goes to the CBI who are even more corrupt than the local police, and it's left to Ayushman to set things right. Director Anubhav Sinha tries to being out on screen his knowledge of Indian politics, particularly village politics which is entangled in the shackles of casteism. But sadly, his presentation, story and direction have turned out to be nothing but a disaster. Screenplay If you have watched any crime series on television, you will certainly applaud their story and script rather than Article 15. Popular Indian TV crime series like CID, Crime Patrol, and more are way better in terms of quality, script and making. Dialogues The script also influences the dialogues which are poorly written. It's nothing but an absolute 'time pass' simply written to fill up the blank spaces. And if this was not enough, the poor sound designing made it almost impossible to hear or understand the dialogues! Music The film has no music at all. Direction Even after a string of flops, Anubhav Sinha doesn't seem to give up. His Article 15 is the worst film as it seems he fails to understand the basic nuances of direction. The poorly made, dark film leaves no scope for the stars to even act, forget good performances. Ayushman Khurana has simply been wasted here. Acting Ayushmann Khurana is police inspector, investigating a gory rape-murder case, but he seems to be perplexed and appears to be ignorant about what's going around! The irony is that there is nothing for him in Article 15 to act when the whole film revolves around him. Verdict The film is dark and poor in appearance. There is nothing to lookout for, not even a bit of thrill. It all sums up as a waste of time, energy and money for the viewers. Above all this, there is no entertainment value - no romance, heroine, action nor music. Even the locations are poor and grim. The film gives a dull feeling as most of the filming is done in the dark. Perhaps the director feels that the UP police work only in the night! Film: Article 15 Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Sharma, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, and M Nasser Star: 1/2
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