Meghna Gulzar

Chhapaak is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Meghna Gulzar and produced by Deepika Padukone & Meghna Gulzar in collaboration with Fox Star Studios. The film was announced by Deepika Padukone on her twitter account on 24^th December 2018. The film released in theatres on 10^th January 2020 In India.

The number of acid attacks increasing at an alarming rate over the years. Such acts destroy many lives as it damages the face permanently. Bollywood has also attempted some brave films on various topics but this is the large issue that is ignored many days.

The plot of Chhapaak:

This film is based on the true-life story of Laxmi Agarwal, it stars Padukone as an acid attack survivor, alongside Vikrant Massey.

Story of Chhapaak:

The year is 2005. Malti (Deepika Padukone) is a 19-year-old girl who gets attacked by acid on a street in Delhi. A good Samaritan takes her to the hospital. Her face is irreparably burnt, with no chance of it getting back to its original form. Though there is a difficulty in speaking at the time of the tragedy, she manages to tell the cops that the attacker is Basheer Shaikh aka Babbu (Vishal Dahiya) and her sister Parveen. The cops arrest both and Babbu confesses that he indeed got the acid thrown on Malti. Shockingly, Babbu was a family friend of Malti’s and even made the rounds of the hospital to visit her, post the attack. In the court, Malti’s lawyer Archana Bajaj (Madhurjeet Sarghi) gives a tough fight but Babbu manages to seek bail on some grounds or the other. Archana stresses maximum punishment though the law is not clear on acid attacks specifically. This prompts Malti to also file a PIL, asking for a ban on the easy availability of acids. The case runs at around 7 to 8 years in High Court and it is closed with the positive decision for the Malti. Then Babbu and his lawyer appeal in Supreme Court but there also Malti and her lawyer Archana do a very good job and get success to send the victims behind the jail for 10 years which is a long time ever in history. Also, the PIL is granted, according to that, any industry or corporate who buys acid, they have to register otherwise they will be charged a huge fine. Some of the most impactful scenes of the first half are Malti seeing her face in the mirror, after the attack, for the first time, and Archana urging Malti to wake up and fight the battle.

Opinion in the production of these types of social facts:

Chhapaak’s story is mostly based on real-life incidents and is quite hard-hitting. It also opens the eyes of many peoples who wouldn’t be aware of the seriousness of the situation and that acid is so easily available in India. It is a ruthless crime activity that is not only effects on the skin or body of the female but it also brakes their strength. It happens to female candidates, especially those who are willing to achieve big in life or to beautiful females who do not agree with the proposals of some crazy persons. The thought of doing this is so crazy, we think that the mentality of that person is so bad and he has to visit the mental asylum. This is also an important matter to get aware of between common peoples. There are also many other crimes in society, under that, this is ignored. But that should not be good. It should be highlighted so that everyone can be aware of it.

The pain of acid attack remains whole life. Not only it burns the skin, but it also destroys the whole life of that particular lady. When you will recover from that attack, your face identity has been lost. You also can get fear after looking at your face. Because acid not only burn it damages all sensitive organs. These damages cannot be fully recovered either by surgery or by self. Also, the surgery cost is very high which can be afforded by a middle-class man. It is also seen that in many hospitals they refused to take such type of patients and also not providing such care & proper treatment to the patient in many states in India. So this is a matter of huge tension. In India, there are many rules and regulations and many laws but there are many gaps inside that. So in every crime, the criminal is moving free without getting a strict punishment for his job and these increase the bravery of such types of persons who are thinking about doing this. If once Government takes strict action against these bastards, then everyone comes in their own line and never thought to do like that.

Due to this ignorance, acid crimes are increased and in India, there are more than 1500 cases of acid attacks in the last 5 years. So to make aware common peoples besides the government about this type of social film should be produced. It shows the peoples this is very painful for her who faced it. We are Indians, it’s our very old bad habit that until it happens to any one of us we are not taking it seriously. But it is a dam serious matter to be stopped. So in our opinion, this type of unmanned activity should be stopped.

Cast, Screenplay, Overview of Chhapaak: