Moral Nights (2021)

Vishudha Rathrikal (Moral Nights) is an anthology film comprising of five stories based on casteism, pseudo moral values and gender discrimination rampant in contemporary Indian society. The events in the movie have been presented as happening recently in some cities in Kerala and Kolkata. Heavily underlined by black humor, the film probes how an invisible despotic government persecutes and repress caste and gender minorities using its numerous physical and emotional torture machines. The stories are narrated by three friends as they embark on a pleasure trip to a hill station. The first story is about the travails of transgender persons in a society that boasts of modern values and sophistication. In the second segment, an affluent family treacherously traps a Dalit youth in legal imbroglio to save their false pride and nobility. The third narrative grabs some intense moments in the lives of sex workers living in the red streets of Kolkata city. In the next story, a research scholar of JNU and her boyfriend, while staying in a mutual friend's apartment, are assaulted by a group of drunken men professing pseudo morality. These students are then mercilessly tormented by the police. Their plight is almost similar to that of Rohit Vemula who had committed suicide in the University of Hyderabad, unable to bear constant casteist reprimands by the authorities. The fifth story which happens as the friends are about to reach their destination, examines elements of violence and aggressiveness in humans irrespective of their position in social strata.