No Escaping The Camera:
Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin, dancing at a private party, was not spared the intrusion of the viral video, so poor Sajini Shinde (Radhika Madan), a school teacher has no chance of escaping the consequences of her drunk dancing, in dishabille, on a bartop in Singapore, where she is celebrating her birthday with colleagues.
In Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video, directed by Mikhil Musale, the eponymous young woman, on her return home, is sacked by the principal (Bhagyashree), under pressure from outraged parents. Her controlling fiancé, Siddhant (Soham Majumdar) freaks out; her autocratic father, a famous stage actor, Suryakant (Subodh Bhave) is furious. Coming out of the fog of slut-shaming opprobrium, Sajni writes a suicide note, blaming her father and fiancé and vanishes. He best friend (Shruti Vyas), the one responsible for accidentally uploading the video, raises enough of a stink for the sleepy Pune cops to wake up.
Bela (Nimrat Kaur), a non-Marathi speaking ‘outsider’, who is already straining under the sexism that forces her to work in the women’s cell, is asked to investigate along with junior cop Pawar (Chinmay Mandlekar). He is civil enough to her face, but has saved her name as “Dooberman Madam” on his phone. The misspelling amuses her more than the nickname.
She dresses in severe, manly outfits, rarely smiles, and when questioning Sajini’s circle, mimics the harsh speech pattern of her male colleagues. Bela finds that everybody is more concerned about their reputations, supposedly tarnished by Sajini’s antics, than her disappearance, and possibly, death.
From being about the social issues of a woman’s dignity being ripped, another women facing workplace bias, Sajini’s mother (Sneha Raikar) being mistreated by her husband, it becomes an investigation into what happened to Sajini—suicide or murder? A lot of lies and cover-ups are exposed by Bela’s persistent probing, but she is no closer to solving the mystery.
There is not enough pace or spice in the plot (written by Musale, Parinda Joshi, Anu Singh Choudhary, Kshitij Patwardhan) to make it a satisfying thriller. Like in any police procedural, a clue does pop up once in a while, but the final reveal is a let-down.
Tying up Sajini’s family in knots, setting father and fiancé squabbling with lawyers in tow (Sumeet Vyas, Kiran Karmarkar), adding the extraneous character of a brother (Ashutosh Gaikwad) and a guilty-looking friend (Rashmi Adgekar), just serves to pad up the script that does have enough substance to run for nearly two hours.
The character of the stern, loner female cop, with only a dog for company is now a stereotype. Still, Nimrat Kaur plays her with as much conviction as she can muster. What Musale does well, is create the small town Maharashtrian ambience – the plays Suryakant Shinde does, his fan following (Pawar touches his feet), his patriarchal arrogance—Bhave plays the part with realistic flourishes. The idea that Sajini’s fate affects other women around her is an idea toyed with but not fully realized.
(This piece first appeared in scroll.in)
