Assi (2026): Taapsee Pannu and Anubhav Sinha’s Courtroom Drama Is Uncomfortable
Introduction
There are films made to entertain, and then there are films made to disturb, in the most necessary way possible. Assi falls firmly in the second category. Director Anubhav Sinha has once again stepped into territory most filmmakers avoid, building a courtroom drama around a number that should bother every Indian: 80 rapes reported every single day.
Hitting theatres on February 20, 2026, the film brings together Taapsee Pannu, Kani Kusruti, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, Revathy, and Naseeruddin Shah, a cast that on paper alone signals this is going to be a serious watch. Co-written by Sinha and Gaurav Solanki and produced under T-Series Films, Assi comes in with the weight of a social reckoning, not a weekend watch.
Plot
The story starts with Parima, a school teacher played by Kani Kusruti, who is abducted and brutally assaulted after a school farewell function. She survives. She speaks up. And then begins the longer, quieter suffering, navigating a legal system that is rarely kind to survivors.
Raavi (Taapsee Pannu), a lawyer driven by personal loss and moral conviction, takes on her case. Running parallel is a shadowy vigilante known only as the Umbrella Man, who starts eliminating the accused outside the courtroom. And cutting through the whole film, every 20 minutes, the screen goes blood red, a silent clock counting real crimes happening while the fictional one plays out in front of us.
Cast Performance
Taapsee Pannu brings everything she has to Raavi. She is not just playing a lawyer; she is playing someone carrying the anger of a generation. Her delivery in key scenes, especially when the case starts slipping, is raw and precise. I’ve seen her in Pink, I’ve seen her in Thappad, and this ranks right alongside both.
Kani Kusruti is exceptional. She says less and communicates more. Watching her navigate Parima’s return to normalcy, the hesitation, the hollow smiles, is genuinely painful. Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub as her husband quietly steals scenes, playing a man whose helplessness slowly turns into quiet devastation.
What I Liked
The film wastes no time. The first 20 minutes set a tone so bleak and so real that you feel it physically. What’s remarkable is that Sinha never lets it slide into exploitation, the pain is present, but it never becomes spectacle. That is a difficult line to walk, and he walks it.
The red screen device hits harder each time. By the third or fourth flash, you stop seeing it as a stylistic choice and start feeling it as a reminder. The final scene, where justice is delivered in front of a room full of children, lands with a weight that stays after the film ends.
What Could Be Better
Kumud Mishra’s Kartik is the film’s most frustrating element. The character has a compelling backstory, his wife’s death, his rage at the system, but the screenplay never gives him the space or clarity he needs. He drifts in and out without ever quite fitting.
The Umbrella Man angle also sits uncomfortably within the film’s otherwise grounded world. It is not that the idea is wrong, it is that it belongs to a different kind of movie. Here, it breaks the realism and softens the very serious courtroom drama the film is built around.
Direction and Craft
Sinha directs with controlled fury. The visuals are deliberately unglamorous, muted colours, handheld movement, no artifice. It makes the world of Assi feel like something you could read about in tomorrow’s newspaper, and that is entirely intentional.
There are no songs, and the decision makes complete sense. The background score works as texture rather than instruction, it supports without telling you how to feel. The overall craft is tight, purposeful, and in service of the story.
Critics and Public Response
Bollywood Hungama gave Assi a 3.5 out of 5, acknowledging its strong performances and fearless premise while pointing to the uneven subplots as a drag on the overall experience. An INVC review was more generous, awarding full marks and calling it a film that demands to be watched and discussed.
On social media, audiences have responded with a mix of admiration and discomfort, which is probably exactly what Sinha wanted. Kani Kusruti has received the loudest praise, with many calling her performance the emotional backbone of the film.
Final Verdict
Assi is the kind of film that does not let you off the hook easily. It has structural problems and a second half that loses some of its grip. But the performances are real, the message is urgent, and the moments that land, land hard. Walk in knowing it will not be comfortable. Walk out knowing it should not have been.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
