Most of the mainstream Bollywood movies lack the purity of Cinema because they fail to define their characters well, and when it comes to strong women characters, we can only recall the films made back in early 70s, be it Shabana Azmi’s Ankur. And if we come back to early 2000s, the only film which depicted the true life of an Indian woman was in the Nagesh Kukunoor’s directorial Dor. However, the 2015 film Parched stands out in this category as it portrays the life of rural Indian women with a more realistic view. Defining the plot of the film simply, Leena Yadav’s film follows from friendship, suffering and heartbreak within a story of four women, trying their best to overcome their individual struggles.
The film builds up with the day to day struggles in the life of Lajjo (Radhika Apte) and Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee) and on the other hand we have Bijli who is carefree, works at a dance company with no relationship bounds and seems to have different life from the other women. Happier and carefree, Balji seems to have a life that both Lajji and Rani envy. And as the story paces further, we are further headed to a point where we see that three of them are on the same way going through their day to day struggles in a different way.
The double standards of our society are, we fight under the name of feminism and women empowerment just with some of the small issues, and where there is actual need of women to be empowered, we overlook those parts. The film Parched boldly speaks it up, though the story has the shades of friendship within it, yet it raises a lot of questions.
Do Watch Parched if you haven’t yet and let us know your take on the film. Meanwhile stay tuned with The Indian Wire for more such articles.