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The idea behind this documentary was to say something in regard to the R.G. Kar incident that hadn’t already been said. At the time of conceptualization (September 2024 – a month into the protests and media frenzy around the murder), people already knew – in Kolkata and the world over – what had happened, the nature and scale of the crime, the protests, the political controversy. If we were to make a documentary on this, it couldn’t be a bone-dry retelling of facts that were already pulsing across social media.
People were already deeply aware. So the film would need to have something else to say – something not as evident.
To answer this, we decided on conducting a parallel to mythology. Kolkata’s famous for its biggest annual festival – the Durga Puja – where they parade statues of slaying of Mahishashura – a demon, an embodiment of evil – at the hands of the goddess Durga.
The R.G. Kar rape and murder took place relatively close to the festival, scheduled in October. Many of the protests were using imagery of Durga in their signage, and there were calls to cancel or curtail festivities. The image of Durga – an embodiment of feminine power – was significant in the face of what had happened. But the image of Mahishashura, the demon himself, was more curious to me. The demon being killed, evil being vanquished, is a classic tale of victory – but the killing of a perpetrator doesn’t dissolve the underlying causes of why they sin in the first place.
In India, rapists have been hanged before. It didn’t stop more rapes and murders. If killing the demon – hanging the rapist – doesn’t solve the crisis itself, then what would?
To answer this, we commissioned the construction of a new statue – one unlike those
paraded across the city. It’s of the demon, alone, staring in horror at his own hands. A suggestion that the cure for this lies within oneself, an answer far more complex than a noose.