A pitch-perfect procedural drama- Cinema express

Katte, kotte, theche is the phrase that comes to my mind when I think of HER. A Telugu saying that loosely translates as “the shortest form possible”, and in this context, I am inclined to use it as a compliment. The 1 hour 43 minutes runtime aside, HER is a nimble and an elegantly precise katte, kotte, theche kind of a film. 

HER unfolds in the space of seven days. At the centre of it is ACP Archana Prasad (Ruhani Sharma at her stoic and dignified best), and her journey to solve the crime of the double homicides of Swathi and Vishal. How are these two related to each other? Why were they killed? What lives did they lead before their murder, and how has it led them to their tragic end? Are the people in their lives, who appear at different times to tell their side of the story, the innocent people they truly claim to be? Within the questions Archana seeks the answers for, she finds a link to her own traumatised past and the key to her eventual redemption. 

Director – Sreedhar Swaraghav 

Cast – Ruhani Sharma, Jeevan Kumar, Vikas Vashista, Abhignya Vuthaluru, Ravi Varma 

The film’s visual aesthetics are partly stylised like a documentary while simultaneously doffing its hat to procedural drama aesthetics. It does make you wonder, where exactly do the lines between reality and depiction of reality in cinema blur? And how much of what classifies as “gritty” and “stark” is actually more design than default? Talking about her recent directorial Barbie, Greta Gerwig is quoted describing the production design of her film “authentically artificial”. Maybe the visuals of HER and many other similar crime films/series do have their own version of authentically artificial out here. Director Sreedhar Swaraghav’s commitment to this kind of authentic artificiality is one of the key reasons behind HER being the self-respecting film it is. There hasn’t been any compromise, no watering or dumbing down whatsoever. There is not one detail here, which is hastily adjusted into the narrative for the sake of placating the masses. Even the comedy in HER is very organic, the kind you would expect to see in a good film about cops. Jeevan Kumar is effortlessly hilarious in his role as the case’s second officer, drawing in some strong laughs from the audience. There is an assurance and intelligence in this film that is as endearing as it is admirable. 

Talking of precision and accuracy, one of the best details of the film, something that I personally enjoyed, is the way the film always shows time and specific locations. There is not just Hyderabad. There is Gachibowli, Narsingi, Madhapur, Kondapur, Lakdikapul, Bolarum. This is a very trivial detail, but the effort made to establish and incorporate distinct spatiality in HER is particularly delightful for a native Hyderabadi to watch. This is also heartening for someone who is almost always put off when filmmakers put no effort and get away with bad location cheating. 

The film is also extremely functional with its social messaging. Swathi, the girl who gets murdered, has a complicated past. There is an alcoholic husband who later dies, two boyfriends, infidelity, mental health issues and a deadbeat dad in the picture. When the guy behind Swathi’s death finally gets caught, he declares that she deserved her death because she was not faithful in her marriage. “Characterless women like her need to be taught a lesson” is what he says. Archana’s reply to that goes, “The guys Swathi had an affair with had been married too. What do you have to say about their character now?” Nothing more, nothing less. To watch this kind of dignity and a sane perspective bequeathed to a female character, just one week after the release of Baby, which got many men riled up against a female character being involved with two men, is truly something. 

HER, also referred to as HER Chapter 1, is not an extremely ambitious film. The murders here are more CID than Mindhunter. Only in the last 20 minutes of the film, do we realise that HER is the origin story of Archana Prasad. But there is also a potentially interesting antagonist introduced here. My only grouse with HER has to be that in its attempt to bring an origin story, we don’t see its central characters fleshed out the way they should. I kept wishing I got to know Archana more as an individual and not just a sincere police officer. Here is me hoping that if we get to see a Chapter 2 of this film, I want to see Archana. Not Her.