The 'Parched' way that leads to a beautiful tomorrow

What is feminism? Who is a feminist? For me anyone who is remotely annoyed by patriarchy is a feminist. If you are a woman and you feel you have been tactically or out rightly side lined because of your gender and you have the agitation to do something about it, you are a feminist. If you are a man and the fact that you have to work your ass off and always be in a seemingly never ending race and you totally hate this screwed up system, welcome aboard! You are a feminist. But the 'F' word scares us so much that we prefer being called anything but feminists. That includes bizarrely built up words such as Equalist, humanist and what not? Thanks to the patriarchs.

The simple reason that equality is never served in a platter and it is the feminine population which is being in the receiving end for ages, hence a little emphasis in the naming would do no harm to human race is still a rocket science for so many to understand.

Since the word itself scares the living daylights out of us, it is the best and highly manipulated ideology till this date. Mansplaining this concept is done to death that we often hear male chauvinists peddling unabashed lies that feminism is about women fighting to booze and smoke. Beats me!

Cinema which is always a popular culture never fails to get on our nerves in its role of protecting the patriarchal system without a dent. That said, there are few movies, once in a blue moon which leaves a lasting impact in the service it does in the name of art to mankind. One such beautiful movie is 'Parched'.

Set in the parched desserts of Rajasthan, the film is intricately woven between the lives of 3 women Rani, Lajjo and Bijili and their tryst with the patriarchal system everyone lives in. This movie in every frame is a deliberate attempt to speak for itself without boring us with lectures and to break free the stereotypes.

1.Janaki; 2.Rani; 3.Lajjo & 4.Bijili

The film opens with Rani and Lajjo travelling in a bus to a nearby village to find a potential bride for Rani's son Gulab. No extra marks for guessing it is a child marriage. While Lajjo peeps her head out and enjoys the wind on her face, Rani pulls her and veils her head telling women should never unveil their head. They go and fix the deal. 

                                  

The deal here is the bride's family demanding money from the groom's family. Just the reverse of the dowry concept. The reason being the bride is literally sold off here. This is a one way ticket. We have a half boil Tamil movie boasting this practice and the lead ladies doing happy dance about it. Here Rani and Lajjo fix the deal and return home. 

                                   

We do nothing:

We love to do nothing.

We prefer being handcuffed by imaginary norms than break free the obstacles. We absolutely do nothing yet wish for everything to fall into place miraculously. That is why we love super hero movies because we know we cannot afford the luxury of making it happen ourselves. It is easy that someone else is doing and we just enjoy the fruition.

Like us the protagonists in the movie do nothing. They just watch when something horrible happens to others and tolerate and wait for it to get over when the assault is on them. It is the transformation of these characters over the course of the movie through realistic scenarios that knits 'Parched' close to our hearts.

A girl is shown being driven away to her in-laws from where she had eloped. Her mother and the whole village shoos her away un-mercilessly. The girl cries to her mom that all the men in her in-law’s place rape her daily and doesn’t want to go back. But still her mom sends her away. The so called family honour could not be risked even at that cost. Rani and Lajjo watch this and do nothing. They do not even display anger, disgust or hatred. They just watch. In any other movie, we could have heard a earful from someone on why this is all wrong. But here we don’t. This is the ground reality in most of the places. There is nothing superficial here. These initial scenes set up the atmosphere in which the story is to unfold.

                                   

There is another scene where Bijili comes to Rani's house for her son's ceremony. The whole village which is the customer for Bijili at night throw disgusted looks. Even Rani feels ashamed for having her. Bijili leaves the place quickly. Nobody does anything. They neither tell us how hypocritic these villagers are nor the value of friendship. They just behave as they are assigned. Do nothing and be hypocrites. 

It is this intrinsic thing about this movie that keeps us hooked to it. The simplicity of not seeing feminism as an extravagant concept is heart-warming. It is from within these women the fire ignites on its own.

We are all patriarchs:

Being a woman doesn’t guarantee being anti-misogynist. We are all the reason for carrying forward the legacy. Though men favour highly through this patriarchal system and are hell bound on keeping it intact, it is the women who do this either by manipulation or ignorance that wreaks havoc. This can be understood when looked upon the reactions from women on the recent Sabarimala verdict allowing women inside the temple. Most of the women are convinced that they are 'impure'. It is the comfort they find in this slave mentality that plummets the growth of any societal reforms. Here our protagonists are nothing short of this hypocrisy. Bijili warns Rani that her son frequents her brothel, Rani slaps bijili claiming that she was indeed staining the men in her village. Thanks to women blaming women for every fault of men.

                                  

There is another scene where Gulab rapes his wife Janaki on their wedding night. 

[Reminder:Marital rape is still not a crime in India.] Rani hears this in horror but does nothing. After all she believes her son has the 'right' to do so.

Sex is not a crime: 

As someone rightly said, “Indians freak out hearing the word 'sex' but guess what, we dint become the most populated country by pollination”. Yet this is a least touched topic. We don’t even encourage our schools to educate children about sex, let alone discuss. From crafting one of the protagonist as a sex worker to shedding lights on extra marital sex, marital rapes and homo sexuality, this movie ventures into a zone that is not yet trespassed by popular cinema. 

                                    

Lajjo, who is always mocked by her husband and the rest of the village as ‘sterile’, musters up the courage to try her luck with another man. Her friends who were encouraging ask her why she wants a child. The reason she gives will go down in history as the most straight forward opinion. There is no fancying of motherhood or womanhood. She simply says, if she can, she should. If she cannot, that is also fine, but why should she be deprived from something if she has the potential. The Hindu Epics can throw us ample such examples. But we revere them so much that we dare not discuss those topics. We scale everything as per our pre conceived standards that we fail to look at greater truths. Back to the story, Lajjo enjoys the one-night stand she shares with the man and is vocal about it. The conscience with which she does is clear. More amazing is her encounter with her husband when he learns that she had slept with another man. This truth dawns on him as she says that she was conceived. So we are shown that he always knew that he was 'sterile' yet put the onus on Lajjo and beat her for not having a child. Lajjo still confidently asks him that they can forget that and have the kid as their own. 

If it were a more sophisticated version as sperm-donation, the average mind would not declare that shame. But for Lajjo, the crystal clear conscience is too hard to be shaken. It is neither a crime nor shame. It is a necessity.

I will not let what happened to me, happen to others:

Most of the times, the harsh societal taboos are too strong to be broken, only because we do not want them to go away. We turn blind, when a cruelty in the name of 'norm' happens; we keep mum because we know we have endured it already and are not generous enough to stop it from happening to others, even if we have the full potential to. This wicked intention is what drives us all for a not so changing future.

Gulab makes it a habit to brutally rape Janaki regularly. Rani at one point remembers that the same has happened to her with her husband. She sees the young Rani in Janaki. That is when all hell breaks loose. She throws him out telling that her house is not a brothel and Janaki is not a prostitute. Gulab doesn’t spare them from cursing that they cannot live without a man (however useless he might be). Rani realises that Janaki will not have a future here and boldly sells her house and sends her with the boy who used to sneak peak her house equipping Janaki with books, which were usually thrown away by Rani citing 'Girls who read make bad wives'. Rani sends her away taking a promise from him that she gets proper education. Going a step further, she removes the veil from Janaki's head and says that it should not be required anymore, symbolically conveying the society can hell with its views and she has come a long way from her initial perspectives. 

                                

 On the other hand, Lajjo suffers the wrath of her infuriated husband. While he tries to kill her, Rani comes to the rescue and both of them flee setting him ablaze.

Bijili who has had enough when learnt that the man who seemed to be in love with her only wanted to be her pimp, breaks down and engages more in wooing customers. As a result she is broken inconsolably and vows to never let that happen again.

The three women having had their own part of sufferings and learning break free the shackles and decide to run away to a faraway place, having convinced themselves that they can do well without the judgemental society.

The reason why this movie stands tall is for telling the feminist ideology from the average rural Indian women's point of view. There is no fantasying the ideology that someone so sophisticated gets all the credit for being a lone warrior that they can change every man and woman and bring them up from their sorrowful lives. It is from the women with all their baggage develop the nerve to fight against it. It is their own selves that come as their savior. It is their attitude that moulds them into something remarkable.

True liberation comes from the self-realisation that in our own lives we are our own knight in shining armors. As Rani, Lajjo and Bijili finally have their escapade, the knights in us come out taking us for a more promising future.

The real "Happily ever after"