Article 15

ARTICLE 15 is the story of a righteous cop trying to solve a caste-related crime. Ayan Ranjan (Ayushmann Khurrana) is an IPS officer from Delhi who has been transferred to a village named Lalgaon in Uttar Pradesh as punishment posting. As soon as he joins duty, he comes to know about a case involving three missing girls from the Dalit community in the village. The cops out there don't investigate the matter, citing that the case isn't serious and the community often files false complaints.

"The State shall not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth," states Article 15 in the Constitution of India. Scheduled tribes, other backward class, scheduled caste, and other castes, which are categorised as minorities in the country, consisting of 70 per cent of India's population. Says who? No one but the IPS Officer Ayan Ranjan (Ayushmann Khurrana), who is a graduate from a reputed Delhi college and takes off to Europe for further studies in the film. Fate brings him to Lalgaon village in UP's Badaun.

Director Anubhav Sinha, who treated us to the seminal film Mulk last year, returns with another hard-hitting product in Article 15. If Mulk was about how communalism is eroding the very fabric of our society, Article 15 points out how the rampant caste system is the cancer about which we're all living in denial. Without mincing words, it states that we may all be equal in the eyes of the constitution but that ideal exists only on paper.

Could a movie about the systemic discrimination against India's Dalits be subtle - especially when the movie is filled with justifiable anger about caste atrocities in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and elsewhere? In Anubhav Sinha's Article 15, which is in equal parts powerful and preachy, the question is purely rhetorical.

'Aukaat wahi hai jo hum dete hain'. This line, spoken by a brute male character who exemplifies centuries-old class and caste and gender privilege, gets us to confront the deepest faultlines of modern India. On this side are the upper-castes and the untrammelled power that comes with it ; on the other, are the lowest of the low, the invisible, the Dalits; and in between is the heartbreaking divide which shapes our destiny in this country even today.

The posting was a punishment. Ayan Ranjan, newly minted Indian Police Service officer, the tuck of his shirt crisp as a new banknote, readily admits the reason he's sentenced to the bleak badlands of Uttar Pradesh. Ranjan had agreed with a senior officer without sounding officious enough - he had said "Cool, sir", a yes-man who forgot his only line - and that perceived insubordination was enough to land him in a world where half the people didn't touch the other half.

Spot the Movie Genre is not a game I am good at; but I couldn't help play it this time. In Article 15, Director Anubhav Sinha, regardless of his social endeavours, always keeps us aware of the firm cinematic tradition he is working out of. This is the classic Honest Cop Vs Evil Men story, flirted with, and made richly comic.

IPS officer Ayan Ranjan (Ayushmann Khurrana) could be anyone of us - urban, educated, entitled, shielded from, if not entirely immured to the ugly ground realities of the country. The kind who would know little of or could even be entirely unaware of caste based discrimination owing to their own privileged position in the fundamentally unjust world.

There's a scene in Article 15 where a man is lowered into a filthy and overflowing manhole. He is not armed with protective gear by any means. He emerges with waste all over him. The scene is just quietly placed in the story without much explanation, because honestly, the ghastliness of it all speaks volumes.

Based on Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. The movie is inspired from the 2014 Badaun gang rape allegations and other true incidents. IPS officer Ayan Ranjan (Ayushmann Khurrana) gets transferred to Lal Gaon a place in Uttar Pradesh. It's just one day Ayan has joined his duty, corpse of two minor girls Shalu and Mamta is found hanging on a tree and one more girl - Pooja is missing.

Set in a fictional city named as Lal Gaon in Uttar Pradesh (which originally set in Madhya Pradesh), the movie stays true to its name. Exploring the section of Constitution of India which says the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. IPS officer Ayan Ranjan explores the wrongdoings as he gets transferred to Lal Gaon. Two of the local girls are found hanging on a tree, while another girl goes missing.

Director Anubhav Sinha's latest film 'Article 15' talks about an extremely pertinent issue, that of equality and uprooting discrimination from the society. Starring Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead, the film focuses on Article 15 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

A Dalit woman leads a group of fellow Dalits singing this popular folk song about poverty and inequality in the opening moments of Article 15. It is a catchy tune with a light touch that belies its poignant subject. The manner in which it is used here is also unusual in the context of Bollywood.

A young IPS officer's new posting in rural India has him confronting caste disparities and uncomfortable truths in the face of a gruesome crime. When three girls go missing in the fictional village of Lalgaon, two of them are found dead and there is no trace of the third one. Where is she and who is responsible for this heinous act?

Article 15, is a modern fable based on or inspired by the provision in the Indian constitution, that assures every citizen that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, gender or any such. The film comes complete with a lesson at the end - not the heavy-handed sorts that we are so accustomed to, but just a genteel reprimand on the folly of our ways.

A compelling, corrosive police procedural that lays bare the harsh reality of caste and gender oppression in the sticks of Uttar Pradesh, Anubhav Sinha's Article 15 punches us in the face with the force and precision of a heavyweight pugilist's fist. The blow sends us reeling because nothing that the gritty, unflinching film tells us is a revelation. Haven't we known all along what kind of people we are and what sort of denial we live in? Article 15 only serves as a grim and urgent reminder - and a call to action.