I don't want to say it and I don't think I should say it, but #VakeelSaab isn't the atrocity I expected it to be. Is it Pink? No. Is it faithful to what Pink was trying to say? Mostly.

Ending it with PK asking women to be strong and courageous completely negates the idea that the onus should be on the men committing the crimes, but that's TFI for you. Full of beautiful contradictions.

It is sad that the women needed to be written as hard-working people with sad backstories who regularly run around in temples, but I know for a fact that the target audience for this film wouldn't have seen the film's point, if the women had rough edges.

It is sad that a film that's supposed to promote sexual freedom and consent has a scene where the father leaves the courtroom when his daughter's about to talk about her sex life. Far from the ground reality? Don't think so.

Everything that's wrong with it--20 mins long PK flashback, PK addressing women as ‘Aada biddalu’, ‘Bangaru Thalli’, the numerous elevations--is your everyday regular commercial Telugu cinema. Choose a social justice angle and talk about it as little as possible.

Then add to it the fact that Vakeel Saab lost an election monumentally and he needs to save face. If a film about consent can somehow be made about a man “wronged” by his people, where some character is made to say ‘Nuvvu maaku kaavalayya’ every few minutes then so be it.

Is it right to take the focus away from a very pertinent issue, one that's hardly spoken about in a commercial space, to stroke Saab’s ego? Absolutely not. But is it unexpected or shocking? Also, absolutely not.

Anyway, the three actors who played the three women, Nivetha, Anjali, and Ananya namely, are great, so there is that. I'm not saying it's great, but for what it's worth the message manages to be heard despite Sid Sriram sir’s howls about female valour and whatnot.