When I watched the teaser for Anubhuti Kashyap’s Accused about a week ago, my first reaction was that of excitement. But almost reflexively, I tempered my expectations. Decades of being let down by Hindi cinema can do this. The teaser reminded me of Todd Field’s Tár – starring Cate Blanchett, playing a renowned conductor, whose mythical brilliance on stage is punctured by her indiscretions. It makes sense that the actor tasked with conveying the moral ambiguities and unpleasantness of the subject is Konkona Sen Sharma. The farthest thing in physicality and style – the only thing overlapping Sen Sharma and Blanchett, is their fearlessness to look absolutely deplorable on screen without breaking a sweat. Also, I’d enjoyed Kashyap’s last venture, Doctor G (2023), pushing the Ayushmann Khurrana social dramedy in a new direction. 

Credit to the opening portions, Accused managed to make me forget my inhibitions. Introducing Dr Geetika Sen (Sen Sharma) a star gynaecologist in a London hospital, she is married to Meera (Pratibha Ranta). At a get-together, the couple announce Geetika’s promotion, which will take them to a new town, and their plans to adopt a baby. Meera, too, works at a children’s clinic — but it’s established early in the film that she is the ‘support system’. Hailing from Meerut, and not yet out of the closet to her family, Meera is a........

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