The village in Indian Gujarat which widow Rani and her friend Lajji live in is so isolated from the world that one of them doesn’t know who Shah Rukh Kahn is and the other one doesn’t know that infertility can also happen to men. They learn a lot by meeting Bijli, a dancer and sex worker, who goes to different villages with her entertainment troupe. Socially ostratized, this “human earthquake” is so free it bewilders others. Rani makes an effort to arrange a marriage for her teenage son. Lajji hopes that a child will make a positive change for her alcoholic and abusive husband. While both women are hungry for affection and recognition and Bijli does have sex regularly she knows how fragile the male admiration she gets is.
PARCHED gives female desire and interests a surprisingly open voice making it rebellious for Indian standards. It is also realistic in the way it portrays how the women are ensnarled in patriarchal structures. Everyone suffers under the conventions of rural society, also men, but the most obvious victims are also inflicting pain on others. Even though the film believes that big change in villages can’t happen on the backs of individual women without breaking them, Leena Yadav’s film is hopeful. The different heroines dare to go to the unknown and their time to shine can begin.

Anna Stemmler

Translation: Elinor Lewy