What can you write about Pink that has not been written already?
I must confess that me,
like many others had not thought of going to the theatre after seeing the
trailer, even when it looked good. The most important thing, which makes this
movie great, is its connectivity to the audience. It does connect at many
levels. Having Bachchan in the movie makes things easier. I must say at times I get disinterested with a
movie just because of him, there is nothing new that I expected from him and in
Piku too, he was the third best actor
even though he got the national award for it. But he surprised me and perhaps
many others.
A question which comes to
many minds is that why we had to have a male lawyer and not a female one? The
reason is quite apparent, a Shabana Azmi or a Ratna Pathak Shah could have been
a great choice, but the message spreads a lot more when someone like Mr.
Bachchan says those lines. We cannot ignore the fact that his stature in the
industry is probably the hugest. May be in the next one we will see an all
women cast defending the case.
The sad
part about this thing was that, what if the girls didn’t get a big lawyer like
him? That is something to ponder about. One of the major reasons why I liked
the movie was that, it was perhaps the first mainstream film which totally
destroyed the middle class morality and the 'piousness' connected to a woman in
movies, which had become so essential a part of a Hindi movie. Many films like Cocktail (which appeared to be a liberal
movie in the beginning) have been guilty of confirming to the whole 'sati-savitri'
thing.
This movie was quite clear about how molestation or rape must be
defined, which is 'consent'. We are living in a democratic society but there
are certain things which have to be non-negotiable. One of which is consent.
No, means - No. It is not a beginning of a sentence but a whole sentence, with
an exclamation mark. It is a good beginning, but there are certain
simplifications as well, like the judge who was level headed and who made his
opinion on facts. This is not always true in the real world, where judges too
have passed misogynistic rulings. Sometimes they have accused the victims
because they do not confirm to the ‘good girl’ criteria, and hence it becomes
alright for a man to molest or rape her. Another time they have asked the
victim to marry their rapists.( http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/cuddalore-minor-rape-victim-married-to-the-accused-family-anxious-about-her-safety/). The
judiciary system on the whole needs to be questioned in a strong way and hope
that is done in the next one.
The drama in the court room was great, and the
multi camera setting enhanced the breathlessness of the moments. There were
long 15 minute shots which created a theatre like environment, which is quite
different from a shot where the actor is not having a co-actor in her front. Do
not expect a “Court” though, which was probably the only movie which presented
courts in the most realist manner.
All
the actors did well, especially Tapsi and Kirti. Tapsi surprised me, because I
had never seen her perform so well. Kirti was great in Shaitan, but was overshadowed by other actors, this is her great
chance. Through Andrea, we also came to one of the most important issue of the
country, which is of racism against the north-east Indians, especially the
trouble that the women go through. We need an entire movie to showcase that.
Other actors in smaller roles, like Vinod
Nagpal who was the girls’ house owner, and Rajvir’s friend who challenged the
girls did a great job as well. The only one who looked a little out of place
was Piyush Mishra, probably because he thought it is a commercial film, but
later he came to his own and finished it well.
The song Kari Kari sung by
Quratulain Baloch is haunting and can be heard all the time.
Director Anirudh
Roy Chadhury, creative producer, Shoojit Sircar (who was more like a
co-director) and writer Ritesh Shah are three men who created something great,
they must have taken a lot of insight from the women who suffered.
Watch this
movie with your family, especially your young boy or boys. It is in the end a vision
of Shoojit Sircar which has created such a gem. Do watch it. It’s only a
beginning and hopefully Hindi cinema will dare to go even more radical in the
future.
Reviewed by Prabhat Jha
Prabhat Jha is a Research Scholar in Patna University. He often writes poetry, plays and short stories. Apart from English he also writes and translates from Maithili and Hindi. Email: prabhat.jha087@gmail.com
