Film review of “Insaaf Ka Tarazu”
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-7 1981)
The treatment of rape in this film is certainly better than in the run of Hindi films. Firstly and most importantly, the rapist is shown to be a typical man of average appearance and mentality. He is not a maniac like the hero of Red Rose of a professional goonda like the villains in Ghar. This is a significant explosion of the myth that rape is a crime committed by an occasional psychopath.
Secondly, the act of rape itself is shown as springing from the desire to dominate, crush and humiliate the woman. It comes across as an act of violence rather than an act of sex. The rapist beats, ties up, threatens with a knife and insults the woman. What he is shown to be enjoying is not the act of sexual intercourse but the process of terrorizing the woman, destroying her sense of self. He gloats over Zeenat’s helpless situation: “Now you will kiss me.” She screams “No, no.” He answers “Yes, you will.” The will to dominate, not the will to kiss, is clearly his motivating force. This psychic reality of a rapist was well portrayed and countered that other myth so often strengthened in films that the woman asks for and enjoys rape…