Siya Movie Review, Vineet Kumar Singh, Pooja Pandey the heart and soul of the film

Movie Review 

A particularly poignant moment in Manish Mundra's directorial debut, Siya plays this doha in the background. The scene cuts to slow motion and your heart stops. When you come out of a numbing, brutal and honest experience like Siya, the director very much intends it to be, you find yourself questioning whether the doha is justified, because justice is never served. And then it hits you. It means hope. Ek din...ek din ayega.

  Manish Mundra, who produced gems like Newton and Masaan, dons the director's hat for the first time for Siya, starring the intelligent Vineet Kumar Singh and Pooja Pandey, the heart and soul of the film. Sans songs or Hindi cinema got you hooked, Siya alone rides on excellent writing, clear direction and excellent performances. Nothing else is needed, you understand at the end of the movie. 

 As shown in the trailer, Siya is the story of a 17-year-old rape survivor who eventually becomes a puppet in the hands of the powerful, a victim of a flawed justice system. Siya draws from at least six similar real-life incidents in the last three to four years, as Mundra himself revealed in an earlier interview. But the shadows of Unnao and Hathras Rape Cases will be more visible. When our hero Siya Singh (played by Pooja) is busy collecting genhu and lakdi on his circuit, your heart freezes as you know what is in store for him. She is kidnapped, brutalized for days, chained to a bed without food or water as men take turns. The bits of dried blood on his body attract ants as he lies motionless, watching them crawl on the chain that binds him, just wanting to get to his mother. 

Best Story

 Siya's criminals - one of whom is the brother of a local neta - were caught, jailed but eventually released on bail. Siya decides to continue the fight with the help of Mahendra (played by Vineet), a lawyer and friend of the family, and after a long struggle, a CBI inquiry is ordered, which finds the local neta also guilty of raping her. He is arrested just as Siya's father Shekhar is beaten up by local thugs and picked up by the police on charges of possessing a fake weapon. He is killed in police custody and burned in front of his family as a show of strength. Back off or it could be you next. 

 Blatant abuse of power - monetary, political and class - runs through the film's veins. At every given moment, Siya is reminded that she is weak. And at the mercy of the powerful. If he dares to hit one of their "love" offers, they will forcibly show him his place. Nothing we haven't read in the headlines before. In fact, something we read very often.

Climax 

 In the climax scene, as Siya, Mahendra, her mother and chachi drive down the highway, Siya asks, "Aisa nyay ka kya jab koi zinda hi na ho?" We know what's going to hit us next, and you'd expect the end credits to roll right then and there, but Mudra's Siya lingers for a few more minutes to let the audience come alive in shock.

  In his debut film, Mundra brings us a poetry that is brutal with him. The film is brilliant and unlike anything that has come out of the Hindi film industry at least this year. At the same time, it is so confusing and uncomfortable that it takes hours, maybe days, to work through. Mundra deserves a pat on the back for being able to command such control over his audience in his first attempt. 

Vineet Kumar Singh

 Vineet Kumar Singh plays the backbone in Siya and never misses a beat. His eyes change from bitter tears to tears of anger to tears of despair in seconds. He is outstanding.

  Should you see Siya in theaters? Yes, you definitely should. Just experience what an honest story of real-life events might look like. No, 4500 VFX shots are not required.