Warning: Major spoilers ahead

Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte starrer Raat Akeli Hai released on Netflix last week and has been largely receiving positive reviews for good performances, plot line and an intrigue factor that keeps you guessing till the end. However, it drives home another lesson during the climax when the mystery is finally unravelled – that child sexual abuse is a problem that goes beyond the perpetrator, and doesn’t exist in isolation from the social norms.

The story is set in a small town in Uttar Pradesh and follows Jatil Yadav, a police officer played by Nawazuddin, who is investigating the murder of the patriarch of an affluent family – Raghubeer Yadav (Khalid Tyabji) – on the night of his second wedding. The family is suspicious of his bride, Radha (Radhika Apte), who is not only much younger than the man who would have been her husband, but was trafficked and then 'bought' by Raghubeer. However, Jatil adamantly focuses on other angles in the investigation and also develops sympathy and affection for Radha, who he believes is being made the scapegoat by the family.

Towards the end, we finally learn the reason behind the murder – Raghubeer’s sexual abuse of his niece, Vasudha (played by Shivani Raghuvanshi), when she was a minor. It was never really a planned or calculated murder, but something Vasudha does out of anger after a confrontation she has with Raghubeer on the night of his wedding.

What we also learn is that most of the adults in the family at the time knew about the abuse. Raghubeer’s wife was the one who discovered her husband with Vasudha at a property he has in Gwalior. However, instead of rescuing the girl, she calls up Vasudha’s mother Pramila (Padmavati Rao) and informs her about it, too scared to stand up to her husband. Vasudha's mother is also more concerned about the secret getting out, and enlists the help of Munna Raja (Aditya Srivastava), an MLA with close ties to the family. Pramila wants Raghubeer’s wife out of the way to keep the abuse quiet, and to ensure that her own family’s ties with Raghubeer are secure so that her sons can get a share in Raghubeer’s property. Munna’s henchman kills Raghubeer’s wife as well as her driver as they are on their way back from Gwalior.

Watching the scene unfold, a dialogue from the Hollywood film Spotlight came to mind – if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one. The words are uttered by an advocate, Phil Savio, in the film, as he speaks to one of the Boston Globe reporters investigating child abuse in the clergy.

When we come across a case of child sexual abuse in the media, our imagination often begins with the details of the crime and ends with the perpetrator being arrested or brought to book. However, considering that in an overwhelming majority of the cases, the sexual abuser is known to the child (around 94% cases, as per National Crime Records Bureau 2017 data), the caretaking adults have the opportunity to notice signs of the abuse, and a responsibility to put an end to it.

And while that would seem like the obvious thing to do, Raat Akeli Hai depicts what happens with survivors in real life way too often. In an attempt to mitigate the stigma of the abuse, to protect Raghubeer, and to maintain good relationships, the abuse is never even acknowledged, even though others know about it. When Jatil finally tells the family the reason behind Vasudha’s actions, it becomes clear that everyone other than Vasudha’s brother, Raghubeer’s daughter and perhaps her husband, were aware. It is also revealed that Vasudha had to undergo an abortion when she was in school and it was Raghubeer – the man who had raped and gotten her pregnant in the first place – who was also her local guardian. He is called to her school and informed about her suspension from there. Raghubeer used his position of power over Vasudha to abuse her, and it continued because the other adults in the family, afraid of the patriarch and stigma, enabled him. Amid this, it was the child who suffered. The school also does not investigate the matter further and the solution is to remove her from the premises.

The irony is that as a child, Vasudha had to undergo this trauma thinking no one knew about what she had gone through, when so many adults who were supposed to protect her did. This is made painfully plain in this scene. Vasudha’s silence and hurt as she realises this is apparent, though she doesn’t speak a word. There is no angry outburst or confrontation from her side, unlike, say, Alia Bhatt’s character, Veera, in the climax of Highway. The only outburst that happens is from the agonised Karuna (Shivani Raghuvanshi), Raghubeer’s daughter, who screams at the horror of learning this information when she is carrying a child of her own. Even so, the effect Vasudha’s silence has is quite chilling.   

Child sexual abuse often begins with the lure of secrets, by isolating the survivor from his/her loved ones and by instilling the fear of harm to them or to loved ones – for instance in the film, the fear of Pramila’s sons not getting Raghubeer’s properties if she protected her daughter – and being disbelieved. Though Raat Akeli Hai mentions none of this explicitly, as the secrets begin to unravel, it once again reinforces how patriarchy and stigma continue to silence survivors.

It also does a good job of showing how while patriarchy affects all women, it affects some more than others. Pramila, for instance, reveals that she didn’t say anything because she was afraid. We also learn that Raghubeer’s wife knew of his property in Gwalior where he would bring girls, but it is never shown that she is able to confront him. Karuna is married to a man who speaks to her brashly and unkindly, is violent towards Radha, and while she knows of her father’s involvement in trafficking Radha, is able to say nothing. However, the whole family pretty much hates Radha, who is an outsider, doesn’t have the same social capital as them, and subtly strategises to make her the scapegoat despite indications that it could be someone else who had committed the murder. In fact, Vasudha, after she killed Raghubeer, planted her bloodstained dupatta in Radha’s bag in order to frame her.

Raat Akeli Hai is not a perfect film, and this critique by Feminism in India aptly explains why – it criticises patriarchy, but also is also patriarchal in some ways. However, it deserves appreciation for pointing out just how insidious familial abuse is, and how systemic the silence around it is too.