Hi everyone!
Here’s the second of two Netflix Original reviews from yours truly this week, this time from India. For a few other Netflix Originals from India, check out “Love per Square Foot” (Episode #052), “Sometimes” (Episode #136), “Lust Stories” (Episode #168), “Brjj Mohan Amar Rahe” (Episode #220), “Rajma Chawal” (Episode #344), and “Soni” (Episode #389).
A heads up for today’s review: this film deals with sexual assault and the lasting effects of being a rape survivor, and also looks at domestic abuse. If either of those topics will cause you trauma, take a hard pass on this review, and we’ll see you tomorrow.
Here we go!
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Today’s movie is “Firebrand”, the Netflix Original Marathi-language Indian drama written and directed by Aruna Raje. The film follows Sunanda (Usha Jadhav), a women’s advocate attorney driven in part by her own experience as a rape survivor. As her career begins to affect her marriage to Madhav (Girish Kulkarni), she struggles to come to terms with her past while representing a woman attempting to divorce her husband.
No spoilers!
I’m going to have a hard time writing this review. Sexual and domestic assault are very serious issues, especially when women around the globe are still working towards gender equality in many societies, especially in India. The issues should be treated with respect, not flippantly or humorously, which I found was done very well for “Soni” (Episode #389), dealing with many aspects of gender discrimination and cultural chauvinism within India. The good news is that today’s film doesn’t treat either issue with a lack of respect. However, the bad news is that “Firebrand” is also a horribly produced film, with shallow characters, bad pacing, and perhaps the worst editing I’ve seen in a while, particular with a scene involving sexual assault. So, please keep in mind that criticism of the film is not criticism of the issues.
I really like the premise of “Firebrand”, along with the overall story when it focuses on Sunanda. Usha Jadhav’s performance is easily the strongest and most believable within the entire film, when the story allows for it. The story outside of Sunanda, particularly involving the domestic assault case, struggles a great deal, though. The couple is seeking a divorce for various reasons. The husband is a womanizer, often sleeping with other women. The wife is upset with the direction her life has taken, blames her husband for the autism that affects their daughter, and fakes a domestic assault to put him in jail and to win points at court. The wife is an interesting juxtaposition to Sunanda, as Sunanda is dealing with her actual past of sexual assault, and the wife is faking her current situation of domestic abuse. I also think it’s a bad juxtaposition, because it’s hard to make sure that people believe women when they speak out when you have a character faking it. And with all the new focus on exposing sexual harassment and assault in the workplace and throughout societies, it seems like a risky choice, as it tends to create a false equivalency between the two situations, and especially when the wife’s performance is categorically bad.
I struggled a lot with the extraneous details in the film, which carried out the movie much longer than necessary, and generally took away from the focus on sexual and domestic assault. For instance, the string of cases at the beginning to establish Sunanda’s bone fides, along with her interactions with fellow attorneys, felt pretty extraneous as the film moves forward. I also found the representation of their autistic child to be a needless detail, especially when the acting was, at best, a questionable representation. And finally, there’s a technique that’s demonstrated in the film for assault survivors to write out their experiences, and read them aloud. For anyone wondering if that’s actually a thing, it is. However, it’s normally done at the end of a series of therapy sessions, and generally in session because of its triggering capabilities. It’s immensely painful to hear Jadhav recounting Sunanda’s experience over and over again throughout the film at home, especially when it leads to a thematically odd resolution for everyone involved. The film then ends with text highlighting statistics for sexual and domestic assault which feels like an afterthought by that point.
“Firebrand” (2019) is the first Marathi-language film from Netflix, exploring the effects of sexual and domestic assault in India. While it has a great premise, it also struggles very much with pacing, editing, and acting, making a well-intentioned film about serious topics almost unwatchable in parts. Fans of the Indian film scene, or folks who do not suffer trauma or triggering because of the content, may want to check out this film, but just between us, I think “Soni” does a better job with the topic.
Rotten Tomatoes: NR
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 4.7/10
“Firebrand” (2019) is rated TV-MAand is currently playing on Netflix.
