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Zakhmi Aurat
Zakhmi Aurat
Directed by	Avtar Bhogal
Based on	The Ladies Club; by Janet Greek
Starring	Dimple Kapadia; Raj Babbar;
Music by	Bappi Lahiri
Release date	2 September 1988;
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Zakhmi Aurat (English : Wounded Woman) is a 1988 Indian Hindi drama movie starring Dimple Kapadia and Raj Babbar and directed by Avtar Bhogal. Kapadia played Kiran Dutt, a police officer who is subject to gang rape and, when the judicial system fails to convict the criminals, unites with other rape victims to castrate the rapists in revenge.^[1]^[2]

This film is inspired by the 1986 X-rated thriller The Ladies Club by Janet Greek.

Plot

The film is about women who have been raped and how they get revenge by castrating the rapists. Kiran Dutt is a woman police officer who is gang raped by three goons in gruesome fashion - her jeans and panty flung on the fan, her hands and legs spread wide apart and tied to bed posts, as testimony to the ghastly act taking place below. In the film the victim's trust in the Indian judicial system is shattered when despite her testimony, her rapists walk free. She decides to punish the rapists by forming a gang of wronged women and the modus operandi is to first identify the rapists, trap them and then castrate them one by one.

Cast

Dimple Kapadia as Inspector Kiran Dutt
Raj Babbar as Suraj Prakash
Anupam Kher as Advocate Mahendranath
Rama Vij as Dr. Asha Mehta
Aruna Irani as Salma
Beena Banerjee as Mrs. Mahendranath
Satyendra Kapoor as Shanti's Father
Om Shivpuri as Police Commissioner
Puneet Issar as Sukhdev (Rapist)
Tej Sapru as Suryakant (Rapist)
Shiva Rindani as Ranjit (Rapist)
Avtar Gill as Pinky's Rapist
Roopesh Kumar as Raj
Mangal Dhillon as Mr. Mehta
Leela Mishra as Shanti's Grandmother
Kalpana Iyer as Kanta
Chand Usmani as Suraj's Mother
Moolchand as Moolchand
Surbhi Javeri Vyas as Neelu, Castration Gang Member
Madhu Malhotra as Castration Gang Member

Soundtrack

All songs are written by Faruk Kaiser.

Song	Singer
"Tauba Tauba, Allah Tauba"	Asha Bhosle
"Pal Pal Jale Meri Aatma"	Asha Bhosle
"Pyar Mila, Sab Kuch Mila, Pyar Hai To Sansar Hai"	Anuradha Paudwal, Mohammed Aziz
"Apni Raksha Aap Karegi"	Mohammed Aziz
"Apni Raksha Aap Karegi"	Chandrani Mukherjee

Production

Dialogues of this movie written by Iqbal Durrani became quite popular.

Critical response

A financial success, the film opened to a polarised reaction from critics and further attracted wide coverage for its lengthy and brutal rape scene involving Kapadia.^[3]^[4] Khalid Mohammed of The Times of India noted Kapadia's "power packed performance" but criticised the rape sequence as "utter lasciviousness" and "vulgarity spattering through the screen".^[5] Feminist magazine Manushi panned its low cinematic quality, including the absurdity of the action scenes and the "ugly kind of titillation" in the rape scene, but believed it "stays closer to women's experience" than other films of its sort; the review was particularly approving of Kapadia's work: "What really carries the film through is Dimple Kapadia's performance—low key, moving and charming without being at all clinging or seductive. She brings a conviction to her role that is rare among Bombay heroines."^[6]

In later years, The Times of India labelled it a "B-grade movie" though it noted Kapadia's convincing portrayal of "anguish and bitterness at being denied justice".^[7] M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune, while documenting the famous Hindi films of 1988, praised Kapadia for "proving her mettle as an actress of intensity and passion."^[8] Subhash Jha, however, wrote in 2002 that its box-office outcome notwithstanding, Zakhmi Aurat "turned into quite an embarrassment for its leading lady".^[9]

References

^ Vasudev, Aruna (1995). Frames of mind: reflections on Indian cinema. UBSPD. p. 249. ISBN 978-81-7476-053-1.
^ "Year of offbeat films". The Sunday Tribune. 18 August 2002. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
^ Dutt, Bishnupriya; Reinelt, Janelle; Sahai, Shrinkhla (2017). Gendered Citizenship: Manifestations and Performance. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-59093-6.
^ Vasudev, Aruna (March 1991). "Women beware men". Index on Censorship. 20 (3): 7–8. doi:10.1080/03064229108535052. ISSN 0306-4220.
^ Mohamed, Khalid (4 September 1988). "Zakhmi Aurat: How to Go Haywire". The Times of India.
^ Kishwar, Madhu; Vanita, Ruth (September–October 1988). "Male Fantasies Of Female Revenge" (PDF). Manushi. No. 48. pp. 43–44.
^ "Dimple Kapadia: The sensuous star". The Times of India. 31 August 2005. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
^ Dhawan, M.L. (18 August 2002). "Year of offbeat films". The Sunday Tribune. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
^ Jha, Subhash K. (23 September 2002). "Women cops chase reel life villains". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 24 June 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2011.