Parched

Plot

Parched is the story of four women in a desert village of Rajasthan, India. The village and the society are plagued by several social evils, age-old traditions and practices of patriarchy, child marriage, dowry, marital rapes and physical and mental abuse.

Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is a widow struggling to support her old mother-in-law and teenage son, Gulab (Riddhi Sen). Following village customs, Rani marries Gulab off to a child bride by paying a hefty sum to the bride's family. Meanwhile, Gulab is disrespectful, rebellious, and prefers to loiter with a gang of spoilt friends, and spend time with sex workers. Janki (Lehar Khan), the child bride, hopes to stop the marriage by chopping off her hair but is still forced into the relation. Lajjo (Radhika Apte) lives in the same village as Rani, and is a close friend and aid in Rani's struggles. Lajjo is in an abusive marriage with an alcoholic husband, Manoj (Mahesh Balraj). Having failed to conceive, Lajjo is mocked for being infertile and therefore worthless in the eyes of her husband and society. The fourth woman is Bijli (Surveen Chawla), an erotic dancer in a travelling entertainment company. She is eye candy for the men in the village and doubles as a sex worker. Because of her profession, Bijli is ridiculed in the day and not welcomed at auspicious events. Bijli is a close friend and advisor to both Rani and Lajjo.

The movie begins with Rani and Lajjo visiting another village to see Janki and fix a price for her dowry. Meanwhile Gulab is seen loitering around a bus stop with his friends. He chases and teases an educated woman, until her husband, Kishan (Sumeet Vyas) approaches. Gulab and his friends comment that it is inappropriate for a woman to travel alone and look at them directly in the eye. While at Janki's house, Rani receives calls on a cell phone bought for her by Gulab. The anonymous caller started off as a wrong number but now consistently tries to charm her. Although Rani is excited by being approached by a man, her happiness wanes when she realizes that her status as a widow may push him away. Later, at the Gram Panchayat, the village participates in solving local issues. The first issue is of a girl named Champa (Sayani Gupta) who ran away from her husband and tried to return to her parents. The Panchayat forces her to return despite her revelation that her husband's male family members all rape her. Kishan and his wife try intervening but are ridiculed for their progressive opinions and Kishan's marriage to an educated, working woman from outside of the state, possibly from North India.

Kishan is a forward thinking local entrepreneur and employs women in the village for handicrafts and handloom jobs. Both Rani and Lajjo, among other women in the village, work for Kishan and are proud of the money they make from their hard work. In another matter at the Panchayat, the women collectively ask for a satellite dish TV connection. They say that it will alleviate the women's boredom and also stop the men from visiting erotic dance shows. Their demand was turned down previously by the panchayat elders, giving the reason that women of village will be corrupted by the liberal images on the television and also the lack of finances. The women reveal that Kishan has secured a large contract for their handicrafts and so they are prepared to save money for the installation of the satellite and televisions. The elders reluctantly agree and this angers some men in the village, including Gulab, who start to resent Kishan for trying to liberate the women.

The conservative and patriarchal village men are seen to be constantly visiting Bijli. She has been increasingly turning down offers for sex work, much to the irritation of her boss, who threatens to replace her with a new girl. Lajjo is repeatedly abused and raped by her husband and blamed for being infertile. Gulab's marriage to Janki pushes him deeper into the darker areas of loitering and prostitution, and he is later kidnapped for not paying a prostitute in the nearby city. A distraught Rani approaches Kishan and takes out a loan in order to save Gulab, pushing her further into debt. Gulab continues down his path of destruction and self entitlement, and together with his friends, take revenge on Kishan. First they destroy his handicraft goods, and later on they beat him half to death, which drives Kishan and his wife out of the village. Janki also struggles in the marriage and is repeatedly beaten by Gulab in an inebriated state.

Frustrated, Bijli takes her employers car, picks up Rani, Lajjo and Janki, and the women visit a local fort where they get a chance to talk freely. Lajjo realizes that her inability to give birth might also be just her husband's inability. In an experiment, Lajjo has sex with Bijli's lover (Adil Hussain) and becomes pregnant. Bijli returns to the company to find that her dancing spot has been given to someone else. Over time, she resorts to engaging in traumatic rough sex with multiple men in order to make money. Rani discovers that her last bit of savings has been stolen and blames Janki. Later that night, Janki questions Gulab about the money, and he begins to beat her. Rani stops him, and Gulab angrily walks away, saying that he intends to leave the women to fend for themselves. The next day, Rani sells her house and pays off her debts. She relieves Janki of her marriage, allowing her to reunite with her childhood love and asking her to continue with her studies. Laggo informs Manoj of her pregnancy and he begins to beat her, after which she realizes that he is aware of his impotency. Manoj begins to savagely attack Lajjo, and Rani tries to stop him. As Rani witnesses, Manoj falls on fire and is burnt alive. Rani, Lajjo and Bijli together finally run away from the village in search for a better life, away from all the misery of customs, traditions and patriarchy.

Cast

Reception

The film received critical acclaim. It currently has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Meena Iyer from The Times of India rated the film 4 out 5 stars, and mentioned that Parched "takes you into a disturbing and thought-provoking territory". Hindustan Times stated that the film is important because it tries to celebrate the long struggle against unjust system of forced patriarchy. Glenn Kenny from The New York Times mentioned that "the movie’s plain and unstinting affection for its lead characters gives Parched a frequently buoyant tone."

Despite critical acclaim, the film failed to have significant box office collections after its release in India.