Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s latest thriller starring Sonakshi Sinha and Vijay Varma has battled a thousand since its release. The series is a juggernaut on caste discrimination, the insidious insinuation of ‘love-jihad’ and chronic gender inequality in India. This review commends the creators’ oeuvre by delivering hard-hitting truths to the Indian audience in the hope that they will imbibe a sense of constitutionalism.
DAHAAD is a Hindi-language thriller web series of eight episodes, which is loosely based on the life of Mohan Kumar Vivekanand, a real-life serial killer, infamously known as Cyanide Mohan.
Directed by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, the series about a man who has killed more than 27 women after luring them on the pretext of marriage, is not your typical motion picture crime thriller .
Instead, the series weaves an intermesh of caste and religion with the attempt to depict a hunt to nab a serial killer. It presents a layered narrative of prejudice and societal discrimination through the everyday life of sub-inspector Anjali Bhaati (Sonakshi Sinha).
Anjali comes from a marginalised-caste background, and even though her father has changed their surname to Bhaati, she cannot escape the markers of caste in a closed social set up.
Vijay Varma ably portrays the character of Anand Swarnakar, who is a professor of Hindi literature. The series does not go down the road of gimmicky twists. It wastes no time in revealing Swarnakar as a serial killer, who leeches upon women belonging to poor backgrounds.
Vijay Varma ably portrays the character of Anand Swarnakar, who is a professor of Hindi literature. The series does not go down the road of gimmicky twists.
Although married with a son, Swarnakar’s mind is twisted as he coaxes women to develop physical intimacy with him on the pretext of marriage. He then kills them by convincing them to have a contraceptive pill coated with cyanide.
The silent roar of caste
The series, whose very name means ‘roar’ in English, is set in Mandawa, Rajasthan. Caste and religion-based discrimination are like whispers, rumours, and so many soft-spoken words in the series, but the subtlety cannot fill the void of a loud, thumping roar of the impact they have in the society— and on the plot.
Bhaati, who is in charge of the case along with inspectors Devi Lal Singh (Gulshan Devaiah) and Kailash Parghi (Sohum Shah), has to go through frequent caste discrimination.
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As part of the investigation into the serial murders, she goes to search the house of Swarnakar’s father. He does not allow her to enter, saying: “It is our ancestral house. No lowly person has ever entered it.”
She retorts: “This is not the time of your ancestors. This is the time of the Constitution.”
But this triumph is short-lived. She cannot fight a system that operates within and outside the legal system of which she is a part. Every time she passes through a room of a privileged-caste constable, he immediately lights up an incense stick to purify the air.
Her battle against caste discrimination is not just against those who do not know the Constitution. It is also against those who have taken the oath of protecting the values of the Constitution but refuse to consider it as more than a mere document.
The Dalit female police officer retorts: “This is not the time of your ancestors. This is the time of the Constitution.”
The Indian Constitution is not a mere document. It is also a battlecry for a new morality in the society, one that asks citizens to treat each other on the basis of their actions and not on the basis of caste, creed or birth.
Love’s own jihad
While a substantial part of the series revolves around solving the mystery of the cold-blooded murders, that story is interlinked with another story relating to inter-religious marriages.
The series depicts how inter-religious marriages are nowadays portrayed as ‘love jihad’ (Muslim men luring Hindu women into marriages in an attempt to convert them to Islam).
When Rajni Thakur, belonging to an upper-caste family, runs away with Altaf, a Muslim man from a lower class, because they love each other and want get married, Yuwa Mandal, a Hindu right group of local youths led by a politician gather before the police station and start chanting slogans “ghar ki beti, ghar main rahegi!” (The daughter’s of our ‘house’ will stay in the ‘house’.)
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The group’s leader announces that they are ready to shed blood for their religion and to save their daughters from Muslim men who try to lure them away.
Altaf is caught by the Yuwa Mandal ‘activists’, but the police manage to rescue him, and keep him in the lockup to save his life. The police suggest that Altaf’s family leave the village for a few days to protect them from the angry mob baying for their blood.
While the law requires that everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty, people like Javed, Imran or Altaf’s are declared guilty ab initio because of their religion.
Meanwhile, Rajni is forced to give a false statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against Altaf to the effect that he abducted and sexually harassed her. (Such a statement amounts to a confession recorded before a magistrate and is considered binding in law.)
When the police are forced to write a false first information report (FIR), Bhaati along with Devilal decide to intervene and try to save Altaf.
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Amidst all this, Murli (Yogi Singha), belonging to a marginalised caste, goes to the police to file a complaint about his missing sister. His sister left the house, leaving a note behind that said that she was getting married.
The police do not register a complaint because according to the note, she ran away voluntarily. Although in a later part of the series, it is revealed that his sister has been killed by Swarnakar, Murli purposely tells the police that the guy she left with is a person named Imran in order to gain their attention.
It is because of this false statement of Murli that another man named Javed gets linked to this case, is attacked by a violent mob and almost killed.
While the law requires that everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty, people like Javed, Imran or Altaf’s are declared guilty ab initio because of their religion.
In a later episode, a local court quashes all the charges against Altaf and reiterates that the decision to marry is taken by two individuals who love each other.
This is an attempt to show how the judiciary can play a crucial role in upholding the fundamental rights of autonomy, the right to marry and personal liberty guaranteed under the Constitution when it is threatened by transient public morality.
Conclusion
In a brilliant juxtaposition, the series meditates over two situations faced by women. On one hand, there is the outsized but outlier danger of a serial killer like Swarnakar. These are such rare occasions that they ought not to define how women should live their private and public lives.
In the end Bhaati deciding to change her surname back to Meghwal is her dahaad— a declaration that she does not have to change herself for society. It should be the other way around.
On the other hand, there is the everyday prejudice, discrimination and oppression faced by women like Rajni. This is the real danger, and something that needs to be fought against tooth and nail.
We cannot let the unknown danger of a rare extremely violent maleficence cripple the everyday march of women towards a better life with more equal rights, the series subtly suggests.
In any case, if women are given their due rights, they must, and will, learn to fight against spectres of the kind Swarnakar represents.
In the end Bhaati deciding to change her surname back to Meghwal is her dahaad— a declaration that she does not have to change herself for society. It should be the other way around.
