CONTEMPORARY LAWYERING II INTERNAL

MOVIE REVIEW ON ‘MASAAN’

CONTEMPORARY LAWYERING

II INTERNAL

SUBMITTED BY:

Siddharth Soni

PRN: 18010126262

DIV: C
Word Count:
B.B.A. L.L.B. 2nd year

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MOVIE: MASAAN (2015)

DIRECTOR: Neeraj Ghaywan

IMDB: 8.1/10

PLOT

The plot of the movie revolves around two seemingly separate stories that converge eventually.
The first story is of a teacher (Devi Pathak) who was found having sexual intercourse with a
student in a hotel room. The police authorities found them having sex, and the inspector records
the lady on his mobile phone. Devi and her father Pathak (Sanjay Mishra) are subjected to
blackmail by the police inspector who demands a hefty bribe in order to close the case and not
disclose the recorded video to the media.

The next story concerns the life of Deepak Kumar (Vicky Kaushal), whose family works in the
cremation ghats by burning funeral pyres (wooden structure for burning body as part of funeral
rites). He studies Civil Engineering and falls in love with Shalu (Shweta Tripathi), a high caste
Hindu girl. They start meeting each other, and then one day, during a trip, they share an intimate
moment with each other. Unfortunately, in a bus accident Shalu dies. Deepak is shattered on
seeing her dead body and loses all purpose in his life.

SOCIAL ISSUES

The story of Masaan is a story of love, loss and acceptance; a story of innocent hearts trying to
find freedom confined by the kinds of the society. There are a few social issues that were
highlighted in the movie:

v PRE-MARITAL SEX AS A SOCIAL STIGMA: Pre-marital sexual intercourse is often

looked down upon much more significantly in smaller towns in India. When the police
inspector catches Devi (Richa Chaddha) and the boy having sex together, he tells her

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that her life is now finished. So basically a person’s life is spoiled if people get to know
that he/she was involved in pre-marital sex. A similar belief is also shared by her father
who feels ashamed of her act. Richa Chaddha also says that “Jitni chhoti jagah, utni
chhoti soch”.

v CASTE ISSUE: After Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) falls in love with Shalu (Shweta
Tripathi), his friends tell him that the girl is from an upper Hindu caste and advise him
to not be very sentimental about her. Later in the movie, we also see a couple of
instances where Deepak tries his best to avoid telling his lady love that which part of
city he comes from. It was an attempt from him to hide his caste as the location would
have given it away. That is what the truth about the country is. Issues about caste are
not restricted to purely reservations in higher educational institutions.

v FAMILY ‘IZZAT’: Devi’s father takes her to get her a job by his ex-student, she is
offered only Rs. 5.5K. When according to her qualification, she would have earned Rs.
15K easily. But the father does not accept her disagreement quoting “Kam hua toh kya
hua, izzat kitna de rha hai”. This comes back to the age old norms of maintaining
family ‘izzat’ in society.

v GENDER DICRIMINATION: There is just a small instance in the movie which highlights
Gender Discrimination; when Devi (Richa Chhadha) arrives on the Ghats where her
father works as a priest, she is warned by one of the priests of the ghat about the taboo
that women are not allowed to enter the Ghats. However, it is also shown in the movie
that the father of Richa Chaddha ‘Pathak’ believes in equality of men and women and
has never treated her daughter discriminately.

LEGAL ISSUES

Some of the legal issues that the movie highlights are:

v UNETHICAL RAID: The police arrested Devi (Richa Chaddha) and her lover for the
crime of ‘indecent behaviour’. The arrest on the account of police officials was not
justified and was against the privacy of couples. Police cannot barge-in hotels on the

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grounds of ‘indecent behaviour’. These raids are conducted by the police officials in
order to search for sex rackets.

v FALSE CHARGES: The police inspector threatens Devi (Richa Chaddha) and her father
(Sanjay Mishra) that he would file charges of ‘abetment of suicide’ on Devi and also
that the family will be burdened with the court proceedings if he files the charges.

v CORRUPTION: The police inspector asks for a bribe of Rs. 3 lakhs from Devi and her
father to not file a false charge of ‘abetment of suicide’ against her and not disclose her
video to the media. The inspector threatens to file a false case to shift the blame of
death of Devi’s lover to Devi by creating a false narrative.

v INCORRECT PROCEDURE: When the police raided the hotel and found out Devi and her
lover involved in sexual intercourse, the police were not wearing a badge of
identification, which is against the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.

LEGAL PROVISIONS INVOLVED

1. PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT, 1988:

This act was enacted to combat corruption in India against government officials,
especially in rural areas. As highlighted in the movie, the police inspector asks for bribe
to stop framing false charges against Deci and asks for a bribe for Rs. 3 lakhs to shut
his mouth. The helpless father, with no other option left, arranges for the amount to pay
to the inspector. This highlights a major problem in the Indian society, where people
are threatened and are asked for a huge bribe, and despite of fighting these corrupted
officials, these helpless people decide to give bribe. The same situation came before the
court in the landmark judgement of D. Sampath Kumar v. The Inspector of Police1,
where the claimant fought against corruption and the police on record was fired of his
job according to Section 82 and Section 93 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

1
D. Sampath Kumar v. The Inspector of Police, (2012) 4 SCC 124
2
Section 8, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
3
Section 9, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

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2. PRE-MARITAL SEX IS NOT A ‘RAPE’:

Pre-marital sex is still considered as a taboo in Indian society, and is sometimes even
considered as a crime in villages. The position of pre-marital sex was cleared in the
case of Khushboo v. Kanniammal4. The hon’ble Supreme court held that pre-marital
sex is not a rape if both the adults have wilfully consented to it. It can be concluded that
pre-marital sex is not an offense if both the girl and the boy are adults and they wilfully
consented to the act. Also, the girl should not be married to someone else. Their act
becomes punishable if it is violative of Section 3755 (rape), 4156 (cheating) and 4797
(adultery) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

3. RIGHT TO PRIVACY:

The police officials in the movie barge in the hotel room of the couple, thus violating
their fundamental Right to Privacy8 as guaranteed by the Constitution. The police does
not have any legal right to intervene in what is essentially a consensual act between two
people performed in the privacy of a room. Similarly, there is no law that forbids an
unmarried couple from checking into a hotel together. However, hotels across the
country routinely refuse to rent rooms to unmarried couples.

4. INCORRECT PROCEDURE:

When the police inspector barged in the hotel room of couple, he not only violated their
fundamental right to privacy, but also was not wearing a badge of identification.
According to Section 41(B)9 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, the police officer
at the time of arrest must wear a badge of identification.

4
Khushboo v. Kanniammal, 2010 5 SCC 600.
5
Section 375, Indian Penal Code, 1860.
6
Section 415, Indian Penal Code, 1860.
7
Section 479, Indian Penal Code, 1860.
8
Article 21, Constitution of India, 1950.
9
Section 41B, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

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CONCLUSION

MASAAN is not a typical bollywood movie with all the glitz and glamour; it is the simplicity of
story-telling that makes it stand out. The movie has reflected Indian society beautifully and
also gives an important message: Sometimes few people/things can only be in your heart and
not your life. We need to let go of things to move on. It could be anything - your feelings,
people, aspirations. We need to let go since they hold us back in life. Hate is a baggage, so can
be love sometimes. We are all mortals, but we also exist as part of memories. Things cannot
always go in the way, you want them to be. Sometimes, you need to sacrifice something to
achieve something. Shalu (Shweta Tripathi) agrees to sacrifice her family in order to marry
Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) and Pathak (Sanjay Mishra) was also ready to let her daughter go
away from him to start a new beginning.

SUGGESTIONS

1. The present law enforcing bodies like police are corrupt in themselves and there needs
to be a reform in the present law enforcing system of the country.
2. You do not always get what you want, and sometimes letting go of something
becomes important in order to achieve something.
3. Police cannot interfere in the privacy of individuals and there is a need for strict laws
for respecting the privacy of individuals.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

CASE LAWS:
1. D. Sampath Kumar v. The Inspector of Police, (2012) 4 SCC 124

2. Khushboo v. Kanniammal, 2010 5 SCC 600

STATUTES:

1. Indian Penal Code, 1860

2. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

3. Constitution of India, 1950

ADDITIONAL WEBSITES:

1. https://www.imdb.com/

2. https://www.wikipedia.org

3. www.indiankanoon.org

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