Questions that must be asked and truths that must be told are the driving forces of “The Rapist,” a gripping Indian social drama about a middle-class academic who wants her rapist — who has been sentenced to death and to whom she has fallen pregnant — to tell her exactly why he committed such a crime. One of the best works directed by veteran filmmaker-actor Aparna Sen, “The Rapist” is a deeply affecting portrait of personal trauma and an intelligent examination of social and cultural factors fueling the horrifying prevalence of sexual violence in India.
Aparna Sen was often haunted by a question: What is it that turns a man into a rapist? Her pursuit for an answer led her to make The Rapist, starring Konkana Sen Sharma and Arjun Rampal. “The film raises several questions. What turns a man into a rapist? Because nobody is born as one! Is it his environment, or his insecurities? Rape is about power and not about sex. Could the need to assert power be because in a [patriarchal] society, men feel insecure as more women become successful? Is it because men know they can get away with rape as even now, so many women remain silent out of shame? I don’t know the answer myself,” begins Sen.
