Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015, Parched, the third feature film of Indian director Leena Yadav, has been worldwide well received by critics but has struggled to perform at the box office in India, where it mostly gained attention for its explicit sexual scenes than for its content, though abroad it has encountered also a good response from the general public as a film dedicated to the struggle of women in an hostile and archaic society.
Even if at times the narrative tends to be too simple and indulging in some sort of characters' Manicheism, the film deserves to be seen for its honest storytelling of the unbearable hardship of four women and for some moment of beautiful filmography.
In a remote village in Rajasthan, the lives of Rani, a widow, Bijli, a dancer turned prostitute, Lajjo, a childless wife and Janaki, a child bride, are emotionally intertwined and clouded by the violence and savage beatings of the men that cross their existences, pushing them back every time they try to raise their heads. The characters are written to depict not only the general difficulties of women in male-dominated, archaic societies that are not unfortunately limited to rural and traditional India, as the daily news remind all of us far too often, but also to radicalise even more their hopeless, futureless marginality and lack of voice.
Subtly playing with the double meaning of the title, the four women' souls are, in different ways, dried out by the remoteness of their location and the unbearable pressure of an archaic society where a woman that reads makes a bad wife, where beating and raping is the norm, remissively and painfully accepted by the victims, but also thirsty for a life that they know they deserve and can exist. Relying on the deeply rooted friendship and intimacy, even physical, that bond their spirits and bodies together, whether matured through the years or, like for the child bride, for the memories of their past stories, they find the courage, in the end, to affirm their values as human beings, cutting ties with the men that oppress them, purifying their lives with the fire that burns the beating husband and the escape from prostitution, in an ending that, while reminiscent of Thelma and Louise, is illuminated by a ray of hope represented by their decision of which road to take at a fork and the reunion of an emancipated Janaki with her school sweetheart.
A courageous film that is well directed and able to nicely blend Hollywood and Bollywood aspects of filmmaking, Parched involves the viewers, of all genders, as the struggle for basic human recognition surpasses the man/woman juxtaposition, as hinted by the sternness and rejection of the village towards the foreign-looking wife of the local textile entrepreneur, and becomes a gender-blind human fight for humanity. A beautiful cinematography supplements the occasional script's psychological shortcuts and the frequent bipolar over-romanticising of some of the characters that are, however, well played by most of the cast, amongst which excel Tannishtha Chatterjee in the role of Rani and Radhika Apte as her friend Lajjo.
Notwithstanding some shortcomings, Parched has a value that deserves to be appreciated not only for its much needed feminist activism and sociological angle but also as a well-crafted film.
Even if at times the narrative tends to be too simple and indulging in some sort of characters' Manicheism, the film deserves to be seen for its honest storytelling of the unbearable hardship of four women and for some moment of beautiful filmography.
In a remote village in Rajasthan, the lives of Rani, a widow, Bijli, a dancer turned prostitute, Lajjo, a childless wife and Janaki, a child bride, are emotionally intertwined and clouded by the violence and savage beatings of the men that cross their existences, pushing them back every time they try to raise their heads. The characters are written to depict not only the general difficulties of women in male-dominated, archaic societies that are not unfortunately limited to rural and traditional India, as the daily news remind all of us far too often, but also to radicalise even more their hopeless, futureless marginality and lack of voice.
Subtly playing with the double meaning of the title, the four women' souls are, in different ways, dried out by the remoteness of their location and the unbearable pressure of an archaic society where a woman that reads makes a bad wife, where beating and raping is the norm, remissively and painfully accepted by the victims, but also thirsty for a life that they know they deserve and can exist. Relying on the deeply rooted friendship and intimacy, even physical, that bond their spirits and bodies together, whether matured through the years or, like for the child bride, for the memories of their past stories, they find the courage, in the end, to affirm their values as human beings, cutting ties with the men that oppress them, purifying their lives with the fire that burns the beating husband and the escape from prostitution, in an ending that, while reminiscent of Thelma and Louise, is illuminated by a ray of hope represented by their decision of which road to take at a fork and the reunion of an emancipated Janaki with her school sweetheart.
A courageous film that is well directed and able to nicely blend Hollywood and Bollywood aspects of filmmaking, Parched involves the viewers, of all genders, as the struggle for basic human recognition surpasses the man/woman juxtaposition, as hinted by the sternness and rejection of the village towards the foreign-looking wife of the local textile entrepreneur, and becomes a gender-blind human fight for humanity. A beautiful cinematography supplements the occasional script's psychological shortcuts and the frequent bipolar over-romanticising of some of the characters that are, however, well played by most of the cast, amongst which excel Tannishtha Chatterjee in the role of Rani and Radhika Apte as her friend Lajjo.
Notwithstanding some shortcomings, Parched has a value that deserves to be appreciated not only for its much needed feminist activism and sociological angle but also as a well-crafted film.