Jana Gana Mana: The Other Side Of Rape & Encounter

At a time when India’s favourite city Hyderabad is being rocked by yet another rape incident this time involving sons of powerful politicians from the ruling class, a film with the same theme is actually terrifying and squeezing the hearts of audiences. That is none other than director Dijo Jose Antony’s “Jana Gana Mana” featuring Prithviraj and Suraj in the main roles.

Apparently “Jana Gana Mana” deals with rape and murder incident that gets sensationalised due to the religion of the victim, and how politicians use it to their advantage by serving ‘instant justice’ to the killers and wooing the vote banks. While the first half is all about everyone including students, victim’s family and others baying for the blood of rapists, the second half is the courtroom drama that explains how media promotes victims and gives verdicts even before the honorable courts do.

Despite the fact that the film is available only in Malayalam version with English subtitles, the topic of the film became most discussed on social media now. With Hyderabad Police killing four accused similarly in an ‘encounter’ in connection with the Disha incident, recently Court has opined that it is a staged encounter by the police. And the film concludes that the ruling government’s minister is behind this fiasco as he thinks that killing rapists would make people forget all the scams and vote for them in the next election.

Those who have watched the film are feeling terified and speechless, and are wondering what would really happen in this era of student politics where people are still subjected to casteist differences, police work for the upliftment of scamster politicians and even the judicial systems make a mockery of downtrodden.