Accused (2026): Konkona Can’t Save This Lifeless Queer Thriller
A London OB-GYN tears into a subordinate mid-surgery — “a bloody disaster,” “this mess” — and in that single, cold opening moment, you understand exactly the kind of woman Dr. Geetika Sen is: precise, unsparing, and about to have all of it turned against her. What follows on Netflix is a queer psychological thriller that has every ingredient for something dangerous and alive, and wastes nearly all of it.
Konkona Sen Sharma Commands Every Scene She’s In — The Film Doesn’t Deserve Her
There is no question that Konkona Sen Sharma carries Accused on her back with the kind of quiet, controlled authority she has made her signature. Whether she’s publicly humiliating a colleague in an operating theatre or hunching over a hospital server hacking IP addresses to trace anonymous accusations back to a library and a café, she makes Geetika’s desperation feel earned and specific.
But a performance can only hold so much weight. When the script asks her to chase a bleeding intruder named David through corridors, connecting dots to a Dr. Logan, Konkona executes it with commitment. The material, however, never rises to meet her.
Direction Polishes the Surface While the Interior Rots
Whoever helmed this — the director remains uncredited in available materials — clearly cared about aesthetics. The costumes are considered, the London settings are sleek, and even the food carries a certain intentionality. Production value is visible in every frame.
But polish without pulse is decoration. The screenplay moves linearly — accusation, investigation, revelation — without a single left turn that surprises. There are no guts here, no creative risk-taking in either the thriller mechanics or the romantic drama. A story about institutional power, anonymous accusation, and queer identity deserved a far sharper scalpel.
The Hacking Scene Promises a Gear Shift That Never Arrives
The most structurally interesting moment in Accused is when Geetika moves from victim to investigator — hacking hospital servers and tracing the source of her anonymous accusers to a public library and café. It’s the film’s one genuine pivot, a shift from emotional drama to procedural thriller that briefly makes you sit up.
I found myself genuinely leaning in at that point, only to watch the mystery unravel in, as critics have noted, “the least interesting way” possible. The final reveal — David collapsing, the link to Dr. Logan, the framing confirmed — lands with a thud instead of a snap.
Meera’s Marriage Arc Is Squandered, Monica Mahendru’s HR Director Barely Registers
The collapse of Geetika and Meera’s same-sex marriage should be the emotional engine of this film. Meera discovering photographs connected to Geetika’s ex Sophie, confronting her, and then helping a bleeding stranger at a hospital — these beats exist, but they flatline. The romance never generates enough heat for its fracturing to hurt.
Monica Mahendru as the HR director and Sukant Goel as the private eye both serve functional roles. Kallirroi Tziafeta appears as the restaurateur ex. None of them are given room to become anything more than plot levers pulled when the narrative needs movement.
A Queer Story That Refuses to Interrogate Its Own Queerness
Accused positions itself as a #MeToo thriller filtered through a queer lens — a lesbian surgeon accused of sexual misconduct, her identity both shield and target in how society processes the allegation. That is genuinely provocative territory. The film gestures at it but never goes deep enough.
The core idea — that society rushes to judge based on power and plausibility, and that public reputation and private trust operate on entirely different circuits — is sound. But an unimaginative execution means the gender and queer identity dimensions feel like surface texture rather than structural argument. Konkona’s earlier work in the queer segment of Ajeeb Daastaans felt more incisive than anything Accused attempts in its full runtime.
If you are looking for a tightly wound thriller, skip this one entirely — it barely has a pulse. If you want to watch Konkona Sen Sharma work through a difficult, layered character with almost nothing to work with, stream it on Netflix for her alone, but keep your expectations low and your patience high.
Accused is a frustrating Netflix misfire that deserves a reluctant 2 out of 5 — a film with a bold premise and one exceptional performer, undone by a screenplay too cautious to follow through on anything it promises.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
