Deepika Padukone's act of solidarity with students a gamble with Chhapaak

Actor Deepika Padukone knows how to put up a brave face. She is a moving inspiration as Malti Agarwal, an acid attack survivor in Meghna Gulzar’s film, Chhapaak, and an influential source of support to the browbeaten students of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her latter, real-life act lands her film in the middle of a polarising dogfight that has forced people to pick a side: #IsupportDeepika versus #BoycottChhapaak on the internet and Bharatiya Janata Party versus the rest on the streets.

In fact, a contest between two films has never been so deeply divided and political. You can catch Chhapaak at free screenings organised by Congress workers or avail of free tickets to Ajay Devgn-starrer, Tanhaji, from BJP workers. The calibre of the films will have no bearing on the occupancy and the film critics will have no sway.

Chhapaak is an important film: a social commentary screaming to draw attention to the cowardly act of acid attacks. “Chhapaak se pehchan le gaya” from the title track bares the ugliness of how such an act robs someone of not just their face but their identity. The survivor’s unbearable pain is often worsened by an insensitive society, broken criminal procedure and incomplete justice.

Chhapaak is an important film: a social commentary screaming to draw attention to the cowardly act of acid attacks

Padukone plays Malti, a character inspired by the life of Laxmi Agarwal, a Class XII student who was attacked in 2005 in Delhi. Gulzar uses the length of a feature film to repeatedly hammer her audience with the horrors of the incident. She chronicles the life of her protagonist, who recovers, rebuilds and fights to claim her life back. She does so with intersecting glimpses into the lives of other women: a survivor who was refused treatment due to her caste; a survivor who needs money for a facial reconstruction; and many others who did not survive. Padukone is an act of on-screen bravery and brilliance. She lends a credible face to the fight against this monstrosity. Her screams echo in the mind for a long time and make Malti’s unrelenting insistence on fulfilment humble you.

Malti is 18. Despite Padukone’s experience in front of the camera and her stellar performance steered by Gulzar’s direction, she is not an ideal cast. She is a misfit in Malti’s long school dresses and awkward in navigating early adulthood. Laxmi, who stayed under the gaze of news channels for a long time after the incident and who went on to become an activist and a TV host, is also well-known. Deepika looks her, but not entirely.

Padukone is also in stark contrast to Vikrant Massey’s convincing act as Amol, who runs an NGO that fights for acid attack victims at a grassroot level. He is earnest and soft-spoken, but agitated and unsociable. The impending tasks of rescue and rehabilitation keep him perpetually dejected, and Massey does it well. Padukone as Malti pairs well with an older Amol, as opposed to her school romance with an adoring Rajesh, played by Ankit Bisht.

But a socially important film aiming for box office success often needs a star actor. And Padukone has proven herself to be a brave one. Like Malti, who risks personal loss to be at loggerheads with the authorities in Chhapaak, Padukone, as an actor and producer, has chosen to gamble with the success of her film by taking up a simultaneous cause. Her intent in both acts is clear. To be quiet is to be complicit in times when everyone must pick a side.