‘Witness’ movie review: A powerful anti-caste film that doesn’t pull any punches
Through powerful storytelling, debutant director Deepak’s film raises important questions and shows the sheer savagery that we, the collective society, are ‘witness’ to
(Originally published in The Hindu on December 09, 2022)
It’s always been easy to turn a blind eye to the social evils around us and to live in an imagined reality. When you are not the victim, it is easy to shrug your shoulders and blame this overpowering system that crushes those who don’t have the privilege to shruff it off. Debutant director Deepak’s Witness doesn’t give you a false sense of victory against these evils; it isn’t meant to prick you and plead with you to look. Witness throws at you a big, thick book with ‘LOOK’ in bold letters, and asks how ridiculous it is that we are now accustomed to looking at some of these social evils, like manual scavenging, as just another news topic.
Witness tells the story of how a middle-aged single mother Indrani (Rohini), who loses her college-going son Parthiban (Thamizharasan) to forced manual scavenging, chooses to fight back and not be silenced by the ones responsible for his death. Though she is up against a host of powerful people — from the owners of the apartment to the contractor, the sub-contractors, and some corrupt cops — she finds hope and support from a few guardian angels who find their way into her life. One among them is Petharaj (Selva C), a communist union leader, who first figures out the ploy behind Parthiban’s death and supports Indrani in her legal battle. Shraddha Srinath plays a free-spirited, sharp-tongued young woman, Parvathy, who lives in the apartment in which Parthiban died. She defies her neighbours and helps the late Parthiban find justice. A lawyer named Sivaprakasam (a fantastic Shanmugarajan) takes Indrani’s case and spits fire at the courthouse.
From the structure of the screenplay, Witness seems like a whodunit in the form of a legal drama, but it works more as a social drama. The film doesn’t wait anywhere to establish the……