Parched review & rating

Rating: 2.5/5

Story:

A Gujarati woman Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee), a widow, mortgages her hut to fetch a beautiful bride for her son Gulab (Riddhi Sen), who believes having sex with a prostitute makes him a man. Gulab gets hitched to Janaki (Leher Khan) and this worsens Rani’s life.

On the other side, Rani’s close friend Lajjo (Radhika Apte) is a helpless woman who suffers both from her husband and the villagers around.

Bijli (Surveen Chawla), sex worker worried about some once replacing her and also threatened about her fading beauty.

Kishan works for the welfare of women and intends to make the ladies live independently by setting up handicrafts. The travel of all these characters is Parched all about.

Analysis:

Parched is a thought provoking film, which travels with you even after you leave the theatre. Marital rapes, child marriages, sex workers, domestic violence and several such things are dealt in Parched in the quite normal way. 

While director Leena Yadav tried to show the significance of women standing on her own legs, he forgot to teach a lesson to the men who forbids women from doing it. Adding to it, the one positive male character Kishan being scared of a bunch of teenagers is disappointing. The story revolved around sex mostly, making one think that Parched ladies are only concerned about sex and nothing else. 

Adding to it, those ladies fight for cable connection to be set up to prevent their men from attending the vulgar dance shows. This key point lost its significance, as the script mostly dealt with sex.

Performance:

Tannishtha Chatterjee as Rani is impressive. She excels in the scenes where she deals with her spoilt son Gulab towards the end and also her conversations with the mystery caller Shah Rukh Khan.

Radhika Apte as Lajjo comes out well with yet another promising performance. She brings out the innocence in the character so perfectly. Surveen Chawla as Bijli is extraordinary again with a carefree attitude in her character. 

The cinematography is the one perfect thing in Parched, where Rusell Carpenter captured the mood of tribal environment. The background score is ok and editing has flaws. Especially, the loving making scenes are just added to spice up the film but are irrelevant for the film. 

Finally:

Parched is bold but not beautiful. A one time watch.

By Phani Ch