GUILTY MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Guilty is a drama film directed by Ruchi Narain and produced by Karan Johar under the banner Dharmatic, which is the digital wing of his production house Dharma Productions. It is written by Atika Chohan, Kanika Dhillon, Ruchi Narain, and has Kiara Advani, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, and Gurtafeh Singh Pirzada in the lead roles.

Guilty is a film that is based on the #MeToo movement (dealing with sexual harassment) and explores the nuances surrounding the movement, and consent as a whole. It follows the story of a songwriter, Nanki Dutta (played by Kiara Advani) whose boyfriend VJ Pratap Singh (played by Gurtafeh Singh Pirzada) is accused of rape by Tanu Kumar (Akansha) in a tweet. Nanki sets out to find the truth with the help of VJ's lawyer Danish and that forms the rest of the story.

The film aspires to be progressive, and tries to make one feminist statement after another, right from the start. It ticks all checkboxes starting from character assassination of rape victims to mansplaining and understanding consent. However, the film lets go of subtlety and nuance in a bid to make the point across.

There is no doubt that the film's intention is in the right place. Take the scene where a male batchmate of Tanu protests to get her justice. While he is shouting powerful slogans, a woman listening to it asks him to stop mansplaining and step down and requests Tanu, the rape survivor to speak up. It's a powerful moment, and this is exactly what the film lacks. It needed more such moments that had drama.

The film tries to use the Rashomon effect through the lawyer Danish, who listens to various characters from both the parties involved in the case and tries to come to a conclusion. The movie also makes it a point to take into consideration the mental health of the women involved in the case, which is typical of Kanika Dhillon (one of the writers) as we had seen in Manmarziyaan and Judgementall Hai Kya.

With political correctness, a strong premise, and so many layers, Guilty should have been a remarkable film. However, it squanders all these because of a screenplay that is all over the place. The dialogues too seem extremely artificial, to a point where the engagement takes a hit. The filmmaking aspects take a backseat and the message takes the forefront, while it should have been a balance of both.

Kiara Advani gives it everything to pull off the role of Nanki and she does succeed to an extent. But better characterisation than - just a girl with tattoos and hippy clothing, along with mature dialogues could have made the role more memorable. The pick of the actors is Akansha who plays the role of Tanu with ease, despite the complexities attached to the character.

Technically, the film's camera work isn't outstanding but the music manages to give you a rousing feel at a few places. The slightly preachy nature of the film, owing to the on-the-face messaging might put a few people off, but nevertheless Guilty, despite its issues, is a very important film that deserves a watch, especially when the #MeToo movement is under debate for close to two years.