‘Accused’ movie review: A perceptive take on #MeToo discourse that provokes reflection over resolution

These days, the Kashyaps seem keenly interested in stories that probe the steep personal toll exacted by success, ambition, and power. Even as Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar gets a date in theatres, sister Anubhuti Kashyap observes the post-#MeToo landscape through a perceptive lens in this Netflix original. A cross between psychological drama and a taut thriller, Accused stars Konkona Sensharma as Dr. Geetika Sen, a celebrated queer surgeon, and Pratibha Ranta as her partner, Dr. Meera, who has travelled from a conservative Meerut to the accepting lap of London.

The plot centres on how Dr. Geetika’s meticulously built life begins to collapse under anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct and predatory behavior at her workplace. The complaints spiral into an enquiry led by a sanctimonious journalist (Mashhoor Amrohi). As suspicion spreads about the doctor’s past and personality, it causes an upheaval in Geetika’s and Meera’s lives and in our minds. Eroding reputation, fractured trust, and the agonising ambiguity of perception versus truth amid online trolling and public judgment— the ripple effects suck you into the narrative.

The film’s core premise about a female and queer doctor accused in a #MeToo-type sexual misconduct case, is bold and fresh. It inverts the overwhelmingly male-perpetrator pattern seen in most such narratives. Anubhuti and writers Sima Agarwal and Yash Keswani avoid treating queerness as an issue or trope, instead presenting it as a grounded reality. When it comes to the conflict, they deliberately lean into ambiguity — refusing easy answers about guilt, innocence, perception, and reputation. The approach seamlessly intertwines the thriller genre with social commentary and psychological character study.

By inverting the #MeToo tropes, perhaps, they want to tell the flag bearers of the movement how the misconduct could look like when the accused is a female and is in a position of power. The thought paves the way for a layered exploration of how certainty collapses when evidence is withheld or contradictory, when patriarchy still breeds in the office spaces, and when speed of institutional and social-media judgment is cruel. The comment section of social media posts is the new gossip gutter that demands cleansing.

At the same time, set in a world where women in positions of power are no longer an exception, the film takes a critical view of the remnants of the broken glass ceiling. As the enquiry progresses and Meera hires a private detective (Sukant Goel), broader questions about control and who is believed surface. It is a tightrope walk, and Anubhuti glides on.

Eschewing melodrama and overt physical intimacy, she generates a character-driven unease and sensitively captures the emotional toll on Geetika’s intimate relationship with Meera when the line between misconduct and cheating gets blurred. She has a knack for telling compelling stories in a hospital setting. Here, the London hospital setting provides a sterile backdrop that amplifies isolation. The production design and costumes give the narrative a fresh feel, while editor Prerna Saigal keeps it tight and focused.

Even when you realise that the inversion of central conceit is deliberate to make a point, the performances keep you riveted. As Geetika, Sensharma portrays someone who is controlling, abrasive, or even unlikable at times, yet she commands fascination. The actor makes the viewer invest in her character while planting seeds of doubt. She makes the audience question their instincts without tipping into caricature. With those shifty eyes, clenched jaws, and stiff cheekbones, and even the way she holds the mobile phone, Sensharma brings the physicality and the ambition that the role demands, as well as the frustration of a successful woman in a world that continues to look for shortcuts in her journey to the top. She has played a dominant queer character before in Geeli Puchhi (2021), but Geetika is a different kettle of fish.

Proving to be a perfect foil, Pratibha adds emotional depth with a nuanced portrayal of fragility and quiet strength in a crumbling relationship. As a partner who wants to believe Geetika but is grappling with whispers of allegations and past affairs, Pratibha delivers yet another eye-catching performance after Laaptaa Ladies (2024). Her subtle shifts in expression, hesitant silences, and small gestures of withdrawal help you appreciate Meera’s internal architecture.

The naturalism in their interactions — tenderness undercut by doubt, protective instincts clashing with self-preservation — keeps one hooked.

Accused is currently streaming on Netflix.