Parched at IFFM - Rural India's version of Sex in the City!
Well, I have to write about the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2016, which I think has been done quite well. These are some random thoughts here...
I especially enjoyed the opening film Parched, directed by Linaa Yadav... who was quick to say her film Parched is somewhat a rural India's version of Sex in the City!
it is one of the films that dares to tread where most of the commercial filmmaker would not. But saying that, one should not forget that the film is actually produced by Bollywood star Ajay Devgun... which I think is really good of him to support such cinema, that blends Shyam Benegal's style of hard hitting social drama, with a signature of director Linaa.. who totally owns the the film through the interesting tale of three women caught in a patriarchal society... each sequence brings new issues to the fore, yet those issues are so known to us, that we tend to forget the kind of oppression and suppression that one goes through... be it, in the name of caste, religion, culture, sex. Linaa, is uninhibited in her exploration of the sexual need of women, no wonder, she wanted to name the film (pun intended) "Sex in the Village". At one point all the three women ponder upon why all the abuses are only targeting women and not men... so they choose to use their own expletives and coin BaapCh## (FatherFu####) BetaC### (SonF###) targeting the menfolks... it is a simple statement yet so loaded. The problems of the Indian rural women have been portrayed in many of the parallel films of India... but yet, when you watch Parched, you feel that these issues have not yet been addressed to its fullest... and especially the issues related to the sexual desire of rural women is hardly discussed. Linaa Yadav does a great job in doing so... and rightly she bagged the best film and director award at the IFFM... and we hope that she wins many more.
I also liked the Q&A session with Richa Chaddha... another Bollywood actor, who discussed about the changing role of women in Indian cinema... well will discuss about her views (and mine) in the next post.
I think the film festival this year has made its mark felt... the line up of Bollywood stars has been good... the discussions have been interesting... and the festival has another week to go.... So if you have not been to the IFFM, Melbourne, then probably you should, if you like Indian cinema.
Well done Mitu Bhowmick Lange! www.iffm.com.au