“Mujhse dosti nahi ki to tezaab se chehra bigaad dunga” (If you don’t love me back, I will destroy your face with acid). If you are a girl growing up in India, these are not words you are unfamiliar with. You must have read them in a news report or watched them play on primetime. If you were unfortunate enough, one of your own ‘lovers’ might have threatened you with them. Such is the reality of acid violence in our country; reckless, brutal, uncontrolled. Women across different age groups have fallen prey to its ubiquity, some for not complying, others for simply being who they were: a woman.
Siddhant Sarin’s Ayena (Mirror) (2022), which won the 70th National Film Award in the ‘Best Non-Feature Film’ category, brings to light the stories of Ritu Saini and Faraha Khan—two acid attack survivors trying to navigate their everyday. What is revealed is a tale of hope, courage, and unflinching resilience.
Ritu was seventeen when her cousin splashed acid on her. “He wanted to marry me,” she says. Faraha, an embroidery artist, was attacked by her husband after they split as a couple. She wanted to expand her embroidery business but had to stop it altogether after the incident. “One of my eyes has completely dissolved, and the other has only twenty percent vision left,” she notes. Their scarred faces not only indicate the terrifying magnitude of violence inflicted upon them, but also mirror the trauma, vulnerability, and self-doubt they have to battle on a daily basis.