Movie ‘Parched’ About Indian Rural Women Breaking The Chains Of Tradition, Appears Compelling

The movie ‘Parched’ revolves around the lives, of four ordinary women chained by old-traditions. This promising movie, is all set to release on September 23. Read on.

The last time, I watched a Bollywood movie depicting the true life of an Indian woman in rural India, was Dor. The movie beautifully captures the raw emotions of two women, connected by a twist of fate. A bond develops between the two as one of them helps the other, discover her freedom from patriarchy.

When I saw the trailer of Parched, it reminded me of Dor. The movie, written and directed by Leena Yadav and produced by Ajay Devgan is expected to release in India on September 23rd.

The story is set in the village of Ujhaas, in North Western India. It revolves around three central characters – Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee), Lajjo (Radhika Apte) and Bijli (Surveen Chawla). Rani is a young widow, a prospective mother- in-law arranging her son’s marriage. Lajjo is a woman allegedly infertile, regularly abused by her cruel husband. Bijli is a dancer / sex worker catering to the needs of hypocritical, unfaithful men. While these women struggle to survive in a patriarchal society, they find solace and strength in each other’s company.

The movie highlights prevalent issues such as dowry, physical violence, forced marriages, prostitution, marital rape, and abuse against women. “This film isn’t about women only, but also about the men… where both are victims. It is the society pressure which forces men to do things apart from the mindset. So, this film talks about tackling both the issues”, says Ajay Devgan.

Director Yadav has also shared her experience during the making of the film, “What I found was that women there talk freely about sex. I traveled to Kutch where I had random conversations with women. This film has been a process of discovering for me. I now realise that societies have learned to cover things up. So at one level, they might think they are progressive, but at a base level, nothing has changed and that is so scary.”

The movie has already received accolades at international film festivals. Incidentally, the movie has been in news recently because of an intimate scene involving Radhika Apte and Adil Hussain, the video of which has been viral on the internet.

The trailer of the movie looks quite promising. It is refreshing to see more female directors in Bollywood, and movies with women-centric themes. The treatment of social issues, from a woman’s perspective would be something interesting to watch. We are certainly parched of sensible cinema!

Image Source: Youtube

tanvisinha

I like to write about the problems that have plagued the Indian society. I feel

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