[yasr_overall_rating]
This documentary film pays tribute to the remarkable and inspiring short life of Jyoti Singh and documents the brutality of her gang-rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012.
On the night of December 16th, 2012, Indian medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey boarded a bus in Delhi on her way home after a night at the cinema. Jyoti did not make it back – instead, she was gang-raped and physically assaulted by six men on the bus, including the driver. She died two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore, her internal organs damaged beyond repair by even the most skilled surgeon. She was only twenty-three years old.
Director Leslee Udwin uses the case of Jyoti as a framing device for serious issues undermining the very foundation of Indian society. Jyoti earned the nickname “India’s daughter” and became the rallying cry of a nation frustrated by the treatment of its women. The film bears her nickname as its title, but really seeks to tell the story of the millions of Indian women critically disadvantaged by the society in which they live. Over the course of the film, we learn the brutally stomach-turning nature of Jyoti’s rape, and the equally sickening way that the rapists defended their actions.
One of the film’s strongest points is in its portrayal of the rapists, particularly the bus driver, who was interviewed exclusively for the documentary. Ram Singh recounts in painful detail both his actions and the actions of the other men on the bus that night. It is this interview with Singh that provides the most shocking moments of the film. By allowing him to speak directly for himself, “India’s Daughter” shows a man who has no remorse for his actions, and believes that the rape of Jyoti was justified because she was out of her house after 6:30pm in the evening. The defense lawyers for the rapists, both educated men, hold the exact same views. Over and over, we hear from both the men involved in the assault and from those defending them that Jyoti Singh Pandey deserved to be raped because she was out of the house after dark without a male family member. The film does an excellent job of showing the gang rape of Jyoti not as an isolated incident, but a symptom of deep structural sexism endemic to Indian culture.
The filmmakers delve deep into the lives of both perpetrators and victims of the crime. In this, we find that most of the men on the bus that night had grown up in poor families from destitute villages far outside of any major urban center. One of the rapists, an adolescent, had a family who had given him up for dead after he disappeared several years before. On the other side, Jyoti’s heartbroken family is profiled in detail. It was revealed that her father sold land that had been in his family for generations in order to pay for her medical school, and that Jyoti had been working eight-hour night shifts at a call center to help lessen the tuition burden on her family.
Despite its dark subject matter, “India’s Daughter” is ultimately a story of hope. Indian students took to the streets demanding gender equality, while women of every age throughout the country felt empowered to stand up for their rights as citizens of the world’s largest democracy. The strength and power of this documentary comes from allowing those affected by the crime, from the men who murdered Jyoti to the protesters demanding equal rights, to tell their own story. It would be easy to turn a documentary like this into a forgettable “preaching to the choir” type of cautionary tale aimed at Western audiences. Director Leslee Udwin does a phenomenal job of making sure this doesn’t happen. Instead, the range of emotions displayed feel incredibly authentic, and it is easy to see how this crime shook India to its core. While no one will walk away from this film feeling any sort of sympathy for the rapists, it is plain to see that they were products of a rape culture that has spiraled deeply out of control. This is important because it is tempting to see their ultimate executions as an acceptable solution that could perhaps deter future offenders. “India’s Daughter” clearly shows that the world’s second biggest country has a problem with sexual assault that runs much deeper than six angry, indigent young men.
If this film does have a weakness, it is its brevity, running at barely more than an hour. While it does a fantastic job at sharing the details of those directly affected by Jyoti’s death, it would have been interesting to see it expand even more on the social changes that everyday Indians are increasingly demanding, and if those changes have been successful. “India’s Daughter” has been advertised as a feature-length documentary, but barely runs longer than an episode of “Frontline,” which is a shame.
Ultimately, “India’s Daughter” does a superb job of bringing home the realities of sexual assault, showing how harmful and widespread it is. The callousness of the rapists illustrates how severe this problem is Indian society, but it is not all too difficult to imagine their explanations for their crime being repeated by perpetrators in other countries. It is saddening that it took a crime this brutal to push gender equality to the forefront in India, but, judging by the attitudes of some younger Indians interviewed (both men and women), the future of social change at least seems promising. This film is currently banned in India, which means more than a billion people in the country where the crime occurred may never get a chance to see its message. If you have to pick one documentary to see this year, make it this one. “India’s Daughter” is poignant, informative, gut-wrenching, and uplifting all at once – films like that do not come along very often.
Opening in NY at the Village East on October 23rd and in L.A. at the Sundance Sunset Theater October 30th
