In the recent film NH10, a woman gets violent. Anushka Sharma's character, Meera, descends in a harrowing spiral that is precipitated by clashes of toxic masculinity — the kind of masculinity that perpetrates honour killings, and the kind that answers injustice with violence. And the weight of all that violence bears down on Meera and changes her. Meera begins the film as a grounded voice of reason, and displays a resilient, enduring sort of strength through much of the story. By the end, though, she has made a precipitous plummet into cold-blooded brutality, and devolved into detached, merciless vengeance.
In a chilling bookend to the explosive displays of masculinity that spark the narrative, the film concludes in a grim accord of sorts between two willful women, Meera and Deepti Naval's character. Each in her own way is damaged by the burdens placed upon them by the patriarchal rules of their society, and each responds, of necessity, by taking on a brutal and traditionally male role. And Meera's revenge is not a gleeful filmi vanquish of bad guys by good guys, nor is it an arc of redemption. It's more nuanced than that. Meera defeats violence with violence, and perhaps to some viewers there is a sense of relief and cathartic justice. But her vengeance is more tragedy than triumph.