Parched
Story of 4 women belonging to a region where males were basically losers and did not want the females to emerge as winners. The males were still suffering from a ‘superiority’ complex which made them think that they could still have the last word. Little did they realize that women have many sources of knowledge and cannot be kept as fools for long.
Story of the characters –
Rani – a widow, untouched by a male for 15 years. She sometimes yearned for sex…and tried to get some solace by being physically intimate with her female friend Lajjo. Mother of a son. Husband had left her for a whore – but did not forget to impregnate her before leaving her. She has a son who is often caught and beaten by the local pimps for not paying the dues for sex services of the local prostitute. Although she is a widow, but no male in the village tries to act fresh with her or approach her with some ulterior motive….like mostly it is believed that life of a widow (or single woman) is pathetic as males try to approach her! That way this village seemed safe.
Rani’s son: Let’s call him RS. He was an avid blue film watcher. Had some loser friends who waste time watching blue-film clips on smart phones and then approach the local prostitute to try out the blue-film moves they learnt since morning. His mother, Rani, pays 4 lakhs to Janaki’s father thinking that once a wife comes, son will give-up his debauch ways and start loving his wife. How naive are women!! A porn film addict, a drunkard can never give up such vices….this small fact our Indians females have not learnt yet!
Lajjo – Wife of a drunkard loser who was being beaten and bruised almost daily by her alcoholic impotent husband. Friend of Rani who are together working as skilled labours in a small cottage industry run by Kishan, an entrepreneur. Although Lajjo’s husband knows that he is impotent, but he beats her up calling her a barren.
Bijli – Local Item girl dancer plus a prostitute. Rani’s husband was her regular client. Bijli had once got the drunkard husband back home and since then Rani and Bijli were friends.
Janaki – Wife of Rani’s son. She was in love with someone else in her own village but was forced to marry RS ….because Rani could pay her parents more.
Women introduce mobile networking in villages-
These mobile phone networks are introduced by the women of the village btw. Whereas they are making good use of it by talking / making business deals – stitching and sowing handicrafts, the males are making use of it by downloading sexy item numbers and blue film clips! Maybe this is the reason why the elderly males did not get the connection – since they know the male psychology a bit too well. They know of the availability of nude female pics on the internet and the females acting in porn films and posing semi-nude etc. are more beautiful to look at – fair bodies and perfect chiselled figures…even if not as perfect but can always be photoshopped – but the uncouth village rustics are not aware of photo-editing etc….hence their expectation is raised…but in real life they get a shrivelled up, dark complexioned wife ….who they cannot tolerate even a wee bit – thus beat them and torture them endlessly taking out their frustration on them!
Bijli reveals that men can be impotent –
Lajjo curses herself that she is a barren unable to conceive but Bijli reveals to her that it is quite possible that her husband was impotent! The naive village belles are not even aware of it! Bijli then takes her to a sadhu-baba who impregnates her. For the 1st time Lajjo realizes what is ‘love-making’ – because before this incident, she was just lying underneath her drunkard–unable-to-perform-loser-husband!
Janaki’s boyfriend comes to her rescue –
Ok, just like all men cannot be bad, all women cannot be good too.
Rani discovers that her son was also like her husband – debauch, drunkard, wife-beater, whore-monger – like father, like son! But she was not a sadist – she helps Janaki elope with her lover and even helps them with some money to escape! Janaki’s lover is probably the best male character in this film – along with of course Kishan – who not only married the woman he loved but also opened ways for poor women to work and become financially independent. With financial independence, women don’t need to serve the thankless debauch pigs all their lives.
Kishan is attacked by losers –
Entrepreneur Kishan was often admired and awarded by the villagers for his good work. He soon became an eyesore in the eyes of losers (RS and friends) and they try to beat him up – to kill him. He somehow got saved but his wife decided to leave the village for good. They were tired of bringing modern thoughts, intelligent and independent, respectful living in the brains of the village rustics.
Life of Bijli was very tough indeed
She may be wearing war paint and several sex-starved males were falling at her feet and throwing money at her – but when she had to render sexual services to the same frustrated debauch males, she was treated worse than an animal!
Last scene – Lajjo conveys to her husband that she is pregnant …only to get kicked by him! He knew that he was impotent – so the fact that she conceived meant that she was slept with someone else to conceive! Lajjo simultaneously realizes that she was being beaten daily for no fault of hers! As Ravana was being burnt in the fair-ground, Lajjo’s husband catches fire and is burnt to death – like end of evil…Ravana in this film was expecting a chaste wife – lol!
The 3 women – Bijli, Lajjo and Rani decide to leave the uncivilized village forever.
Conclusion : Males need a prostitute to release their frustration and females need a prostitute to realize their importance.
Look at the snapshot below….. the film has won several awards…but ultimately the only lesson it could drive in the brains of Indians…village/ town/city/metro males is……Radhika with buddha (aged) sadhu love-making scene! hail India.
PS- So the sadhu-babas who eventually get arrested in sex scandals have their roots from such villages – uneducated, village belles approach sadhu-babas to become pregnant because husbands are frustrated losers! After having fathered several frustrated males and females through the village belles, such sadhu-babas try to spread their wings in towns…cities…where they get caught and publicly beaten, then jailed!
This film should actually be screened in these villages….so that they wake up to the reality they are existing in…then this film will be really worthwhile!
One scene extra could have been added – RS and friends get jailed because of beating up Kishan…and no one comes to bail them out…at least not Rani…and that RS rots in jail for a long time….realizing the importance of mother!