Meghana Gulzar bases her story on a well-known incident of extra judicial killing. A gang rape and the controversial police encounter, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor’s characters represent two sides of justice. One justifies bending the law in order to serve justice: the other believes in procedural integrity. This clash had the potential to be cracker of a movie, but Meghana doesn’t fully utilize it. Among the two leads Prithviraj walks away with the best moments whether its acting or character wise.
Starcast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jitender Joshi, Kshitee Jog and others
Director and writer: Meghana Gulzar
Additional writers: Sima Aggarwal and Yash Keswani
Music: Amit Trivedi
Cinematography: Saurabh Goswami
Producers: Vineet Jain and Dhaval Gada
Production Companies: Junglee Pictures and Pen Studios
Running time: 2 hours and 23 minutes
There is an extremely popular line in Rajkumar Santhoshi and Sunny Deol’s Damini on the process of our judicial system. It goes like this “Tarik Pe Tarik, Tarik Pe Tarik, Tarikh Par Tarik milti gaya hai, lekin insaaf nahi mila (Date after date, date after date, date after date has been given, but justice has not been received) This monologue of Sunny Deol in many ways represents a common man’s anger on the functioning of our judiciary. Meghana Gulzar’s Daayra uses this as a foundation to explore the popularity of police encounters/extra judicial killings.
As already mentioned Daayra takes its inspiration from a well known police encounter. Prithviraj Sukumaran is ACP Raman Kumar, Raman Kumar and his team kill four men who are charged with a brutal rape and murder. The public hail Raman Kumar and co as heroes. However, things take a turn with the human rights commission complaint. Kareena Kapoor Khan is Ajooni: Ajooni spearheads the team appointed to investigate the encounter. Most of the movie goes back and forth exploring the viewpoints of Raman Kumar and Ajooni. Their different belief systems on the meaning of justice forms the main premise of Daayra.
A strong aspect of Daayra are the different social themes tackled by Meghana. A special mention must be made of the slow legal procedures and an uncooperative bureaucratic system. The scenes of Kishitee Jog as a desperate mother is a perfect example of this.
When she goes to the police station complaining about her missing daughter the inspector takes it casually. He says that she would be with her friends or a boyfriend and will return in the morning. This casually dismissive attitude and the subsequent time wasted becomes an important reason for the girl’s rape and murder.
Daayra also dwells into juvenile law with one of the rapists being a minor. How this can impact a case with references to Nirbaya has some impactful lines. The movie also lays bare the polarizing debates surrounding the legal framework for underage offenders.
The movie also benefits from a first rate Prithviraj Sukumaran. Of course, the film is more skewed towards Raman Kumar’s ideology, still Prithviraj does a fantastic job bringing in a quiet intensity coupled with a striking screen presence. Jitender Joshi playing an important part of Raman Kumar’s team also makes his presence amply felt.
Kshitee Jog as the mother also tugs at the viewers heartstrings. A specific mention must be made of her act involving the daughter’s dead body, thankfully Meghana doesn’t dwell very long here by showcasing the girl’s mutilated body.
A big problem with Daayra is Kareena Kapoor’s Ajooni. The actress is at her competent, best portraying Ajooni’s conviction in the legal system well: but the characterization leaves something to be desired. The character and Kareena come across as an extended special appearance rather than an equal presence.
Ajooni lacks the meat of Raman Kumar. This uneven balance becomes a major problem especially the post interval portions. Even the pre climax of Raman and Ajooni discussing their respective ideologies lack a hammer strong impact, again this is due to the inffective writing.
There isn’t much space for music in a film like Daayra; There is only one song Sach Ka Daayra. B Praak’s singing coupled with Amit Trivedi’s composition makes for a soulful number. The lyrics have a solid weight too perfectly in sync with the movie’s theme.
