‘Director Gautham Ramachandran’s ‘Gargi’ is a fantastic courtroom drama that shines the light on several important issues plaguing society today, including the often sidelined topic of child sexual abuse and the humiliation that the families of that accused of heinous crimes like rape have to undergo in the society.
A reasonably good understanding of the working of the judicial system in India seems to have enabled director Gautham Ramachandran to come up with a refreshingly fresh script that makes several pertinent points on a number of topics ranging from rape, and child sexual abuse to transgender rights. Gargi (Sai Pallavi) is a middle-class woman working in a school, who lives with her aged parents and younger sister. With her wedding on the verge of getting fixed, Gargi is concerned about dowry demands being made by the bridegroom’s side.
Nevertheless, she is in a happy frame of mind until one-day news breaks out that the cops have arrested a fifth person in a sensational case pertaining to the gang-rape of a girl child. Initially, Gargi pays little or no attention to the news but when her dad doesn’t return home that night and she gets to know that he, along with other employees at an apartment complex, has been taken in for questioning by the cops in connection with the gang-rape case, her heart skips a beat.
It doesn’t take long for her to be informed that her dad, a watchman at the victim’s apartment complex, is accused of being the fifth rapist. Gargi begins her fight to prove that her dad is innocent. The odds are stacked against her and add- ing fuel to fire are media persons.
