Soni: The story of struggle against misogyny

“Soni” is a 2018 Hindi language crime drama film directed by Ivan Iyer. Soni (Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) is the lead protagonist who already proved her potential in Anubhav Sinha “Thappad” by performing brilliantly as Sunita. This is a story of Delhi female cop who is fearless and desire to change the system and society in one single night. This film really illustrates the sad picture of our system and the so-called "Chacha vidhayak hai hamare" attitude. Kalpana (Saloni Batra) her senior officer both plays an equal role in this quiet character study.  Soni is distressed in her personal life and loses her temperament soon on a boy who constantly strives to tease women while they were in some undercover operation. This is her weakness which she can’t control. Every time her boss supported and saved her, but after so many words of warning, she made the same mistake again and again. Soni's ex-husband often visits her, trying to influence her to restart their relationship, but she is not interested and his frequent presence also made her aggravated. On the other side, Kalpana always inquired by her spouse, who was senior to her in the same department, that she won’t be able to manage her subordinates and always been told that she needs to understand her position and remove all the soft corners for their juniors and especially for Soni. Apart from the professional part Kalpana too facing the family pressure of turn out to be the mother. The Director portrays the city crime, struggle of women of the Police department, and societal pressure through the eyes of these two female cops. This film raises the question on the Police force that when police attempt to do their duty every time some Politicians and other officials stop them from doing so, and in the end police were blamed that they won’t do anything. When Soni slaps one officer who was intoxicated and not accepting the protocols, and needlessly touching her than she lost her control and hit him hard and subsequently she has faced the transfer and inquiry. Yet again when the son of Politician guzzling drugs in the public female restroom and when she warned him he started abusing her and the same happened after that, Soni was again questioned and got transferred to police control room this time. This film is the true reflection of the Internal politics of Police department and misuse of political powers by a politician. Ayr does not offer any tension-releasing catharsis, making his film efficiently disquieting in its modest manner. It’s a film that doesn’t feel the need to fabricate a story to drive home its message. Both Ohlyan and Batra are excellent on their part; dwell in their characters, and filling them with real flavor. And Soni is a worthy addition to the new tale being told in India. The Character of Soni reminds the renowned actress named Fearless Nadia who was known for her heroic roles. She changed the definition of women's roles in Indian Cinema. Gone are the days when a film required male characters to lead the story. The scene where Soni is ready to give up and Kalpana reaches out to her with author Amrita Pritam’s seminal work Rasidi Ticket is emotional in its handling. The film also shows that women fall, broken into pieces, oppressed by male counterparts and society, faced stereotyping and questioned by everyone but in the end, they made it flawlessly.