Vaashi movie review: An engaging courtroom drama

In a courtroom, emotions or feelings don’t matter. What matters is evidence to validate your argument. The court serves justice based on logical reasoning without thinking who’s who. But is it always the case? What if the honorable judge who delivers justice has preconceived or outdated notions? A human is making the judgment on others and no one is perfect. The law will always have loopholes. If the evidence is not there, it can be manufactured. At the end it, a higher authority passes judgment based on their conviction and prejudices. Vaashi touches upon all these aspects through a case brought to court.

The case in the movie revolves around a young man named Gautam, who is accused of sexual abuse of a female colleague on the false promise of marriage. Ebin, who becomes the public prosecutor with the help of his rich brother-in-law, appears for the victim, while Madhavi appears for the accused, who is a family friend. The question of consent is brought under the microscope in the movie. Though the final judgment of the court in the movie seems fair, the narrative of the movie feels like it’s empathising with the accused rather than the victim who is portrayed as a naive and childishly grudgy woman who will go to any extent to punish the man who broke her trust. The climax shot where the judge is sleeping besides a family photo, featuring his wife and daughter, asks the question whether his judgment was based on his fatherly feelings rather than arguments presented during trial. The movie is successful in portraying our justice system which may appear to be fair and objective, but has a very subjective and personal level of interference at least subconsciously.

Overall, Vaashi is an engaging courtroom drama, with Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh playing their roles convincingly.