Feature film on marital rape to release in May

Made on a Rs 40 million budget, the film is due for release by May next year. It is produced by Dinesh Chugh and is currently about 70 per cent complete. Shamir Tandon has composed the music for the film.

A Shaila Film’s production, the film deals with the romantic, emotional and physical side of the husband-wife relationship. Reportedly, the first film on the subject, the film has various layers of emotions in it.

The film stars Rohit Roy and Rituparna Sengupta in the lead roles. Rohit plays a negative role as the husband (Karan Mittal). Rituparna plays the abused woman (Mitali) in the film. After the critically acclaimed Kalpana Lajmi film, Daman, Mittal vs Daman will also deal with the serious issue of marital rape.

The film tells the story of a young woman who is regularly beaten by her in-laws and raped by her husband. The woman fights back in a traditionally patriarchal society where it is still taboo for wives to speak out against their husbands.

The film focuses on the Indian law and how it deals with the issue of marital rape. According to sections 375, 376 of IPC, it does not allow a woman to accuse her husband of rape (unless and until she is 16). The film raises a debate on this without being judgemental. Suchitra Krishnamurty plays Mitali’s lawyer who is pitted against the other lawyer played by Gulshan Grover.