Soni is a superb take on Patriarchy. Here's Why ?

The film draws its title from the name of the protagonist, Soni a common Punjabi name which symbolises an object of golden beauty. Beauty is feminine and Gold is fragile, but our leading lady is a fierce cop a striking antithesis of the two virtues encapsulated in her name.  

The nomenclature is problematic for it dishes out potential infirmity for a female cop when names like Simba and Singham are synonymous with masculinity and power. However, this anomaly isn’t outlandish, rather alludes to the film’s theme that takes on the conflict arising out of empowering women within the wholesome structure of patriarchal power. 

At the outset, the film’s leading lady appears to be an embodiment of misandry, reaffirming her rebellion in an operation as she pounds and whacks a potential molester. Her actions promptly invite disapproval from her senior officer who terms the outburst both disproportionate and unprofessional. The subsequent scene demonstrates her characters redemption as she successfully disses a woman who files a false complaint of sexual abuse,  firmly reinstating her impeccability.  Having voluntarily separated from her husband,  she is a constant recipient of unwarranted reminders urging her to rekindle her marriage. In one of the scenes in the film, her neighbour, a middle-aged Muslim woman even advises her to wears sindoor on her forehead to avoid potential perpetrators. Grappling between the tensity of her enormously baffling, seldom rewarding profession, she also bears the brunt of her husband's incapacities resulting in a marriage that is on the ruins. 

Soni derives her solace from her senior Officer Kalpana who ceaselessly oscillates between the roles of a mentor and a friend in Soni's life. Kalpana who is married to an IPS officer relentlessly endures antagonism for being childless at an age past 30. And akin to most Indian households, this hostility mostly stems from her female family members. Although her Husband seems unperturbed with her ticking biological clock, he rather takes it on himself for her apparent professional inadequacies. In one of the scenes, he even mansplains the responsibilities of a police officer to her. The narrative successfully interweaves the chronicles of both these women whose professional competence is continually marred by hostility. Their existence as a woman is invalidated for the absence of a husband in the former and the lack of a child in the later. 

As the film manifests the ramifications of patriarchy for women it also reflects the repercussions on the men. The unbridled pressure on men to appropriate themselves as the protector of the women and the provider of the household doesn’t necessarily have to be propitious. This is both questioned and evidenced as Soni's husband's financial constraints comprise a key factor in their marital breakdown.

The films progresses with a montage of events as you would see them happening around you. These occurrences do not follow a chronological order yet convene in a narrative that is comprehensible allowing much room for the audiences to read between the line. Despite being a film with  male characters in supporting roles, Soni massively mirrors the message of female subjugation to the predominant patriarchal set-up within the larger scheme of things. Devoid of any ambiguity, the film’s message is clear-cut. It breaks your heart but gets you thinking which is what makes it a must-watch.