BY DR. MALA CHAKRAVORTY*
Welcome to the world of OTT female cops, Babita Singh! This is a world populated by women police officers (protagonists in shows on various OTT platforms like Delhi Crime, Aranyak, Dahaad, Search: The Naina Murder Case, The Great Indian Murder, and more) where women have to balance professional challenges with domestic responsibilities while operating in a strongly patriarchal world that continues to devalue women regardless of their achievements. The milieu is darker, grittier and far more compelling than anything that comes out of YRF Spyverse or Rohit Shetty Copverse. I would love to see franchises made out of these shows and follow the adventures of these women.
Produced by Sudeep Sharma (Paatal Lok, Kohrra), directed by Ambiecka Pandit (Black Warrant), and written by Amita Vyas (Mai: A Mother’s Rag, The Fame Game), A.S.I Babita Singh Reporting (Amazon Prime) explores a woman’s search for agency that has been denied to her both in her domestic and professional spheres.
Babita Singh, aka Baby, is not an intrepid super-cop like Shivani Shivaji Roy or Shakti Shetty, wearing designer uniforms and performing stunts. She is overweight, unfit and overtly submissive. She has never been given the responsibility of an investigation. Even the name she is known by, ‘Baby,’ seems to infantilize her permanently. She is not even given the respect of having earned her position as a policewoman. On the contrary, she is frequently reminded that the job was handed to her on humanitarian grounds upon her father’s death. At work, she is a paper-pusher and people pleaser, exploited and undervalued by her superiors, disrespected and ignored by her peers.
At home, Baby is burdened with a multitude of responsibilities while being the butt of ridicule. Even her ‘loving and supportive’ husband belittles her with a litany of insults about her body, her intelligence, her capabilities. Her profession is of no significance to her husband and in-laws, who want a traditional wife and daughter-in-law to tend to all their needs. Their demands and derogatory comments border on mental abuse that Baby accepts with silent resignation and good spirits, fulfilling all her obligations without complaint. On a visit to her in-laws in her hometown, Rewa, a childhood friend gets murdered and someone she believes to be innocent is charged with the murder. Baby feels compelled to pursue this case, driven by compassion and a sense of guilt at abandoning the friend at a time of need.
As she starts investigating the murder, she faces all kinds of obstacles, ranging from familial pressure to mistrust from local police and derision from the community to harassment by local goons. However, Baby has reached a breaking point and decides to defy the rules and regulations dictated to her by everyone around her without fear of consequences. Eventually, she is successful in her mission and finds a voice that needs to be heard as well as an agency that demands respect. When she reports back to work, she seems to have overcome her vulnerabilities and shed her people-pleaser skin. Baby is finally ready to truly assume her role as ASI Babita Singh.
Nimisha Sajayan is absolutely fantastic as Baby! She is not given a lot of dialogue, but she beautifully captures the internal conflicts of a woman who is under tremendous pressure to prove herself to the world around her. Sajayan makes Baby a vulnerable character without turning her into a victim or a stereotype. Her expressive eyes reflect her pain even as she smiles, as is expected of her. Sajayan is not acting; she becomes Baby! As Baby takes on the thorned path of resistance, we experience her evolution firsthand. We feel the anger simmering within and recognize her gradual awakening to self-worth and self-determination, finally reaching a point where she can stand up for what she believes to be right.
The supporting cast includes well-rounded characters who provide able support in Baby’s journey, populating her world with real people. Special shout-outs are due to Anshumaan Pushkar as Baby’s husband, Barun Sobti as the murdered friend and Rajesh Kumar playing her manipulative boss. Apart from the performances, the strengths of the film also include the setting of small-town Madhya Pradesh — the markets, homes, gullies and nukkads of Rewa, family and communal celebrations of events like weddings and God-bharais, the excitement over the annual Ram-Leela and burning of the effigy of Ravan — giving the film a real-time authenticity. The main focus is on the institutionalized devaluation of women, but a number of other social issues are touched upon — police corruption, police brutality, the underbelly of society populated by addicts and criminals — creating a realistic but murky world with questionable moral values that Baby has to operate in.
The film is not without flaws. The murder mystery plotline is not as tightly scripted as Baby’s personal growth. Consequently, the narrative is not evenly paced and tends to drag at times. The background score is loud and jarring and does not always fit the ambience the story requires.
However, despite the uneven narrative structure and other flaws, I will highly recommend this small film with unknown faces as a must-watch! Anyone browsing the OTT platforms for quality content will miss out if they bypass this thought-provoking narrative with an outstanding lead actress. I, for one, would love to see more adventures of Babita Singh, especially one where she balances motherhood with a bout of sleuthing!
* Mala Chakravorty has a Ph.D. in American Women’s fiction from I.I.T. Delhi, and Master’s degrees in English and American Studies from Delhi University and Smith College, Massachusetts. She has worked in the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu. She switched from academics to Information Technology in 1999.
