According to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau, 31,677 rape cases (average of 86 cases daily) were registered across India in 2021. However, the rate of conviction in these cases is a mere 40 per cent, as per government statistics presented in the Parliament. The disparity is startling. Siya, directed by Manish Mundra, turns the spotlight on this through the story of a survivor of gangrape who fights an oppressive system to get justice for herself.
Siya (Pooja Pandey) is a young girl from a small village in north India. She had to drop out of school to financially support her family. Like most women in our country, she juggles domestic chores with the work she does outside. Harassment on the streets is a regular affair she has come to terms with. Until one day when Siya goes missing. With the help of a friend, Mahender (Vineet Kumar Singh), the family tries to file an FIR but the local police station refuses to entertain such a request.
The missing case draws the interest of a local reporter. As the news of Siya’s disappearance is published in the media, pressure mounts on the local minister to take action. The police begin a manhunt and Siya is rescued from a dilapidated house; her kidnappers are arrested. Gory details emerge as Siya recounts the horror she has gone through in captivity. Yet, her captors are freed from prison and Siya decides to fight for justice.
Siya’s story finds a resonance in several incidents that have shook the nation in the past, from Park Street to Unnao, in how rape survivors are initimidated by the powers that be, stripped of their dignity and humiliated during courtroom trials, and what it takes for people like Siya to remain steadfast on their mission for justice.
Siya might bring back memories of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Pink (2016). While Siya lives in a village, Minal (Taapsee Pannu in Pink) and her friends are urban women. Yet, when they are wronged, the system rises to silence their pleas for justice.
Manish Mundra has meticulously painted a picture of the India we live in — the bureaucratic dogmatism, judicial delays, systemic bullying, silencing witnesses and other horrors that rape survivors go through in their quest for justice. He stays away from portraying Siya as the ‘victim’. There is no sensationalism or melodrama.
Actors Pooja Pandey and Vineet Kumar Singh carry the film on their shoulders. Pooja is exemplary in the titular role. The gravity in her performance belies the fact this is her first tryst with the big screen. Vineet succinctly captures the helplessness of the lawyer friend, trying to bring the criminals to book. Not once does he try to overshadow Pooja with his acting prowess. There is a tacit understanding between Pooja and Vineet, just like their characters Siya and Mahender.
The other heroes of the film are certainly cinematographers Rafey Mahmood and Subhransu Kumar Das. They employ the camera like a bystander, silently chronicling Siya’s hardships, without ever offering a helping hand. They also set the mood for the film by bringing out the desolate and barren atmospherics of the north Indian hinterland.
Siya will make your blood boil. It will leave you shattered. Therein lies the success of this film.
