Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom

There is a certain level of satisfaction when you learn how the oppressed residents of Kasturba Nagar took matters into their own hands and finished off a true, unflinching monster - Akku Yadav. Director Umesh Kulkarni details the proceedings over 3 episodes, an hour each. While it begins with the titular murder incident that took place in a district court room in Maharashtra, the real meat of the story lies in what preceded it, dating almost 5 years back (1999-2004).

Akku Yadav was a terror-inducing presence in the Kasturba Nagar slum inhabited mostly by Dalits. He inflicted various kinds of harm on the community as a whole, especially on helpless women and children, with the menfolk unable to do much except join their families in plight. This is truly the stuff of nightmares, especially when you have to live in fear of harassment, attack, or abuse on a daily basis. Maybe, that's why it's so relevant to give these ladies a platform to candidly voice out how they felt living life in those times.

The makers also do not go the exploitative route, giving the victims due respect and letting them reveal just as much as they want to. The crimes of Akku Yadav are narrated in ghastly detail but the visual recreation never resorts to shocking imagery unlike the previous couple of entries. Even a particularly horrific murder committed by Yadav is handled without the usual blood-soaked frames.

Some of the women sound off on Yadav's intimidating presence, how much they detested him, and their own attempts to kill him without thinking twice. Their confidence is just exhilarating to watch, and translates over to viewers as well. Of course, it's an absolute failure of the police and judicial systems, allowing a criminal like Yadav to go about doing what he did for so long. The perspective of journalists, friends, and lawyers of Yadav obviously lean a different way, but it's easy to look past that. Yeah, even if you don't applaud the ladies for deleting Yadav from existence in the gnarliest way, their lives are proof enough to acknowledge the levels of oppression that they've been through.

P. S - I whistled when Usha brought out an open gas cylinder and confronted Yadav who was ready to barge into her house and possibly kill her. The point is, documentaries don't always offer such moments. This one did!

Bravo to the community for taking justice in their own hands and for showing that they won't tolerate injustice beyond a certain point. The perfect example of snatching justice when the law enforcement agencies and officers and other responsible for it fail to deliver it. Best indian documentary I have ever watched. The anger and fear you will feel at the horrors committed by Aaku and his gang is nothing as compared to the satisfaction you will feel at the unity that the community displayed at the end and the fearlessness and the confidence of the women. I love the 'chaka jam' at the start of the series.

Akku Yaddav terrorises the women and girls of the small Kasturba village, raping and murdering, the authorities do nothing, the local women do.

Wow, this was a real eye opener, an almost shocking drama. I've been somewhat mixed in my views about the Indian Predator series so far, this series though is head and shoulders above the last few.

Well paced, well produced, it is a little muddled in parts, the narrative does jump about, but in the end, the pieces do come together quite well.

Netflix did a good job at presenting both sides, apart from hearing from the women who went after him, you will also hear from his supporters too, accounts are genuinely shocking.

You'll have to make up your own mind as to whether you think they were right to do what they did, but one thing was evident, there was no justice, Yaddav's victims were failed by the legal system, those that issued their own justice felt like they had no other course of action.

One thing that is evident in every documentary series where there is perpetrator and victim, is that people always target the most vulnerable they can find, those that society has turned their back on, and stopped caring about, focusing on people who the authorities will perhaps turn a blind eye to, it doesn't matter the country, the time, the crime, it's always the same.

Genuinely a cracking watch, 8/10.

I've spent a lot of time in India and I've even been to Nagpur where this situation took place. I've always wondered what would happen if the Indian people stood together against their institutions because they have so many people and such a rigid socioeconomic hierarchy. The caste system has kept the poor of India in their place. They don't complain about social issues the way we do and they are the kindest people on the planet. The action taken by these women was brave and progressive and I hope they can replicate it elsewhere in the country. The documentary was well done but they should have used an English speaker to do some of the translation but I was able to follow what they were saying for the most part. Namaste.

Look at the Expression, hand movements, the anger of the accused and co accused.. it will send a stunning shiver within you... what you see in this series is that yes there was pain, yes they suffering because of incompetent police, judiciary.. then you want that "Ravan" to die.. you see that thoes who did all this did not see his cast, they were not the member of any gang, nor they were nexalite.. I find it horrible that at the end of the day their were people who found that killing him was not right.. they took it to castism, naxalism.. they promoted their journalism.. but the real reason was pain, pain, pain, pain..N and anger.

I pity that dainikbhaskar journalist i pity him.. i pity those friends of demon.. I pity him..