These tears do me good, they have watered the parched place; perhaps my heart will grow again there!
Just like anybody else, the sensational and controversial ‘leaked’
trailer of this movie intrigued me to ponder over this movie and after watching
it I was mind-blown.
‘Parched’ is a movie by writer and director ‘Leena Yadav’.
The entire story is set in a rural village called Ujhaas. The main characters of
the movie are: Lajjoo (Radhika Apte), Bijili (Surveen Chawla), Rani (Tannishtha
Chatterjee) and Janaki (Lehar Khan).
I just loved the way how the movie starts with Lajjo and
Rani traveling in a old, rusted bus and Lajjo puts her head outside the window
and feels the breeze on her. She’ll say: “This air! It touches me everywhere. You
want a taste of it?” and pulls in Rani to experience the same. This
reveals the innocence of the character Lajjo and her inner desire to be free.
This is followed by the beautiful-bride-confirming-talking-dowry
sequences by Rani for her son Gulab, a forced child marriage! Rani and Lajjo
end up choosing Janaki as the bride.
As the story starts getting intense with the ‘familial rape’ in that village and the abusive alcoholic husband of Lajjo, Bijili- a dancer who also performs ‘erotic’ dance moves to entertain men is shown as the best friend of Rani. Lajjoo and Rani earn a living by working on handcrafts for a local entrepreneur.
As the story starts getting intense with the ‘familial rape’ in that village and the abusive alcoholic husband of Lajjo, Bijili- a dancer who also performs ‘erotic’ dance moves to entertain men is shown as the best friend of Rani. Lajjoo and Rani earn a living by working on handcrafts for a local entrepreneur.
The movie revolves around the difficulties faced by these
four women in various aspects and the director has beautifully brought out the
feelings of desire, passion, pain and freedom. Though being tied down by the
traditions of the village, Lajjoo, Rani and Bijili still find their share of
happiness when they are together sharing their dreams and desires.
The movie mostly focuses on the subject of misogyny except
while including a character called Kishan (Sumeet Vyas), the local entrepreneur.
Kishan is portrayed as the good guy supporting women and their freedom in that
village. Yet he is also pulled down by the misogynistic environment.
One another favourite is when Bijili emotionally says: “I’ve
heard many promises over the years. But no one has come through” when
Rani asks her to join Lajjoo and herself from running away from that damned
village. And the movie ends when the three women finally tastes freedom that
they have earned themselves.
The story is hard, intense and completely covers the
problems of women in a misogynistic environment. It has all the necessary
elements of colour, art, music, dance, friendship, love, passion, sex and
freedom. All together it's a powerful melodrama and this is why I consider ‘Parched’ to be fully quenched.
Bonus: The characterisation of this movie is brilliant and anyone would love how Radhika, Surveen and Tannishtha has lived those
characters.
Rating: 8.5/10