Centered on the lives of four women living in the rural town of Gujarat, India, Leena Yadav's Parched is a powerful and important film about the mistreatment and misogyny women face on a daily basis, living in a society in which they are deemed as second-class citizens, property of their male counterparts, having no true freedom outside of their designated role. The film focuses on the lives of four women, Rani, Janaki, Lajjo, and Bijili, each of which struggles to live in this patriarchal world where the old, misogynist traditions still rule. Parched is not an easy film to experience, as it holds no punches in documenting the lives of these individuals, each of which is deeply oppressed by the rampant misogyny of India's traditional values. There is Rani, a 30-something widow, who struggles to control her mean-spirited son, Lajjo, a woman who contends on nightly basis with her abusive husband, and Bijli, an exotic dancer/prostitute who left the village and is demonized for her behavior, and while these women each struggle day-to-day with their own issues, what unifies them is the overall oppression they face under the patriarchal rule of society. Parched works so well because all four of its main characterizations are so well-defined, as the film beautiful documents how in this society women must stick together, as they simply have no voice to stand up for themselves. In this culture, they are simply property, and merely the idea of women being able to provide for themselves is met with disbelief by this patriarchal society. Parched captures how these deep-seeded traditions essentially create a barrier for progress, as young men in this society are taught form an early age that they are the superior gender, with women being merely their to birth their children and put food on their table. Parched is a tough film to experience at times, no question, but what surprised me is just how humorous it manages to be at times, making it a point to capture the overall optimism of its female characters. They struggle in this world on a daily basis, but Parched presents characters who simply haven't lost all hope, still finding the humor in life as they bond over their shared oppression. Without going into narrative details, Leena Yadav's Parched is a film that never holds back in displaying the overwhelming oppression women face in rural India, being a gripping, emotionally tale that works so well, thanks to the fully developed characterizations, as each women struggles desperately in a society that deems them as property for men.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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