Parched

Parched is an Indian movie directed by Leena Yadav. Movie is about the bitterness faced by women in rural villages of Rajasthan and the decision they took to change their destiny. This movie is a highly acclaimed Indian movie, which had won many Indian and international awards. Movie show us the life of women who were deprived of all the enjoyments that male had, and were instead kept inside their home to feed her husband and to meet his sexual desires. This movie also shows us the sexual harrasment women has to face in their households. Movie had to met with some controversies for the nudity content in it.



Movie is centered around the lives of three main characters - Rani(Thannishtha Chatterjee) ,



Lajjo(Radhika Apte) and Bijli (Surveen Chawla). Three of them were friends from childhood. Rani was a widow and was having a son. Lajjo was married and was not having a child. Bijli was a dance girl for a dance club in the village and was living her life independently. Movie shows us the difficulties three of them had to face due to the decisions they had to take.



In the movie we can see the customs followed in the village that make women a slave for men. In that village, women were not allowed to read books or watch television. They were following the system of dowry, where groom's family had to give the bride's family dowry before the marriage. In the movie, we can see the mother in Rani, who had to throw her son out of her house for harassing her daughter-in-law sexually, physically and mentally because of the reason that her hair was cut short. We can also see Lajjo taking the risk of having sex with another person to prove that she was not barren and can give birth to a child, infront of her husband who used to abuse her physically and sexually for the same reason. Movie ends by the courageous decision three of them took, to live their life independently out of the village.



Direction by Leena Yadav was brilliant in the movie. She was ready to take the risk of shooting the controversial scenes by which she was able to show the viewers the intensity of damage caused on womens body and mind due to the harassment by men. All cast had done a brilliant job in acting and were able to show all the emotions that their director wants in the perfect way. Cinematography by Russell Carpenter was brilliant. We can see the use of zoom lens for shooting close-up shots to show the emotions on the faces of cast and the use of normal lenses other time. We can also see brilliant use of natural lighting and there was no particular colour tone applied for the entire scenes. 

Movie ends with the courageous decision they took to break the barriers society had put on them, because of the reason that they belong to a particular gender. This movie speaks for women. Eventhough this movie had many scenes that got stuck in my mind, the one that strike the most was



when three of them along with Rani's daughter-in-law went to hill top sharing their common pain of harassment, changing the word mother fucker to son fucker, and then reciting them loudly on the hill top to suppress their anger. There are still women in different parts of the world who are bound by customs of society that stops them from living their life in the way they wish. This movie is an eye opener, which shows the act of courage, which changed the life for them.