Inkaar – an Important Film to Revisit in the Times of #Metoo

Arjun Rampal and Chitrangada Singh-starrer Inkaar, that originally released in 2013, would have surely drawn a lot of audiences to the theatres, had it released somewhere around 2019 and 2020. The reason is simple – the film was ahead of the times in which it was made. And another fact that makes it relevant in this social climate is the fact that it discusses the thin line that separates flirting from sexual harassment in a corporate workspace.

The storyline of the film is fairly straightforward – a woman, who rises through the ranks very quickly in an advertisement firm, files a sexual harassment case against the company’s CEO. The film tries to explore what is ‘sexual harassment’ and when casual flirting is okay, and when it isn’t from the perspectives of the man and woman involved in the incident.

Inkaar, in a few ways similar to Section 375, also explores a possibility if the woman is using her gender to her advantage in a sexual harassment case. And it doesn’t also discredit the difficult circumstances that an ambitious woman has to face from her peers in a competitive workspace.

The film is important for viewing in 2020 because of its exploration of the vicious nature of the corporate work culture and the various dimensions in which an incident of harassment can be viewed. This Sudhir Mishra-directorial entering Netflix is certainly good news for a film aficionado who wishes to relook at a story in a different timeline.