Pink movie review: A blazing indictment of all that’s wrong with us
Pink movie review: the film starring amitabh bachchan and taapsee pannu sledgehammers the message that when a woman says no, she means no. it underlines a woman’s freedom to her own sexuality..
Pink movie cast: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Amitabh Bachchan, Angad Bedi, Raashul Tandon, Vijay Varma, Tushar Pandey, Piyush Mishra, Dhritimaan Chatterjee, Vinod Nagpal, Dibang Pink movie director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
All those associated with the making of ‘Pink’, please take a deep bow : finally, a powerful, brave Hindi mainstream film which focuses on real young women who live real lives and deal with thorny day-to-day issues, which young women the world over will identify and relate with.
I know where the young leads in ‘Pink’ are coming from. And I know too many women who have been in their place, or missed being there by a scary, scarring whisker.
Bottomline, when a girl says no, she means no. En O, which means `nahin’, nada, don’t want. It means go away, don’t bother me. It can also be a prelude to stronger language if the aggressor in question refuses to back off. The young woman can wear short skirts or jeans or Tees. She can be present at rock concerts. She can laugh and reach out to a young man in a friendly fashion. She can have a drink or two in his company. She can even be, shudder, sexually experienced.
Hearing the phrase ‘are you a virgin’ in a Bollywood film in a meaningful, non-smirky manner? Fantastic. Underlining a woman’s freedom to own her sexuality? Priceless.
Watch Video | Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu Starring Pink Releases: Audience Reaction
When she says no, it means only one thing. No grabbing. No forcing. Take that groping hand and mouth away. She isn’t easy. She isn’t a person of loose morals. She is not, never, ever, asking for it.
That it has taken Bollywood so long to make a movie which says it so clearly, without beating about the bush, without prevaricating or using obfuscatory language, tells us a great deal about the country we live in, and the social mores that its women have had to live by, buried under crippling patriarchy and misogyny and a sense of mistaken shame—if you are pawed or worse, you must have done something to provoke your molester. So cross your hands across your chest, put your head down, and keep shut.
Also read | Pink celeb movie review: Amitabh Bachchan film is unmissable, says Bollywood
The three female protagonists of ‘Pink’ are your regular young women. Minal (Taapsee Pannu) is an events manager, whose work can extend into the late hours. Falak (Kirti Kulhari) works in a corporate set-up where image is all. Andrea (Tariang) is from the ‘North-East’ (Meghalaya, she says, but clearly no one is interested in the specifics : girls from the `North East’ are fair game, even if they are covered from top to toe). The girls share a flat in a ‘posh’ South Delhi locality, and we meet them first when they are heading back in a cab in the early hours of the morning, disturbed about something that has just happened.
As the plot (oh joy, a plot, verily), terse and on-point, unravels, we get to know that the trio was in the company of three young men, after a rock concert in Surajkund in Haryana. Things take an ugly turn after the dinner that follows. The women have to make a run for it, and one of the young men ends up needing stitches in a deep bloody gash above his eye.
It doesn’t a genius to discover that the political might backing the injured Rajveer (Angad Bedi) and his friends, Dumpy (Raashul Tandon), Vishwa (Tushar Pandey) and another fellow (Vijay Varma) who wasn’t there but is happy to engineer and participate in the humiliation of the women, will try and turn the tables: instead of being the victims, they will be painted as the aggressors. How do you silence a courageous young woman who has the temerity to ask questions? You label her cheap, slut, whore: the film mutes the word ‘rxxx’, but you can see it emblazoned on the face of the guy who says it out loud and the girls who have to hear it. You can see it in the body language of the female cop (Shankar, just so) who helps nail the wrong person for the crime.
Pink reminded me of Jodi Foster’s The Accused in which her character is gang-raped in a bar: because she wears a short skirt, and has been drinking, she is made out to be a woman on the make. Something similar happens here, but it is all three women who have to bear the brunt of the rage that such male entitlement comes with: ‘aisi ladkiyon ke saath toh aisa hi hota hai’.
Pannu, Kulhari and Tariang, all very good, typify the dilemma of the modern working young women ( they live in Delhi, and the young men who accost them are very much a part of a certain kind of coarse North Indian ethos—they bully but are too cowardly to do this on their own, needing patronage and protection from the nexus of `netas’ and police which exists only to protect them, not call them out on their wrong-doing), but this could happen anywhere , and not just in India.
The young men are also spot on. Bedi exudes menace : when he snarls out that awful expletive during the trial, you feel like shrinking, and wondering — how did we fail this generation, this youth of today, if they still feel like this? Or is it just a continuation of the way generations of men, only surface smooth-and- suave, have felt about women? Scratch a little, and putrid patriarchal pus comes pouring out.
The other three guys are the kind of hangers-on who slip stream alongside a strong leader : if he is having fun (`mazey’ is the word used, and you feel faintly grubby after hearing it used in this manner), then so can they. ‘Behti ganga mein sab haath dho sakte hain’, and girls who refuse to give in and lie back and enjoy it, be damned. How dare they?
The major weak link in this film is the elderly lawyer played by Amitabh Bachchan . (Piyush Mishra takes away some of the sobriety in the court scenes by his unsubtle notes, but he is not so germane to the film’s scheme of things). Deepak Sehgall, we are told, is suffering from bipolar disorder, which means mood swings, which means Bachchan alternating between chewing out dialogue and being growly and forced. He takes on the girls’ case, and we want to cheer because he is the Bachchan and will make everything come right. But because he is Bachchan, the director handles him with kid gloves, and there goes the naturalism with which everyone else is playing their parts so effectively.
Watch | Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu-starrer Pink Trailer here.
For the most part, the thespian comes off mannered, and you want to shout out and say, no, this film doesn’t need Bachchan to be in a pulpit of his own, when he is meant to be taking apart those who are in the witness box. Only occasionally during the second half ( most of which is spent in the court-room with the excellent Chatterjee as the presiding judge), Sehgall forgets he is Bachchan the Baritone, and lights up the screen with a couple of superb moments. It is in these moments you are face to face with the One and Only Bachchan, who should have been in exactly that mode through the film: why are his directors so chary about telling him what to do and how to do it, when he never tires of saying that he is a director’s actor?
Those sporadic moments make you nostalgic. Is there anyone out there who can craft a solid, challenging role for Bachchan? Anyone at all? Being awe-struck is not a good place for a filmmaker. I am waiting for the return of the actor who, back in his day, used to routinely blow my socks off in a way no one has even come close to, in all these years.
Also read | Raaz Reboot movie review
Meanwhile, Pink, perhaps called thus because the colour is girly, subverts it and turns it on its head. In its best bits, the film blazes, its call-to-arms radiating outwards and forcing us to acknowledge uncomfortable truths. It has something to say, and says it with courage and conviction. Gather everyone and go; and while you are at it, spread the word.
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Pink movie review: Amitabh Bachchan's POWERFUL message is unmissable
Amitabh bachchan and taapse pannu star in this week's bollywood release, pink, a social thriller directed by aniruddha roy chowdhury. here's our pink movie review..
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Pink, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu in the lead roles, addresses the issue of patriarchal, condescending attitude towards independent women and stigmatising them in 21st century India. Here's our Pink movie review.
ALSO READ: Before Pink, 5 Hindi courtroom dramas you must watch
OPINION: A look at Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood's most high profile character actor
Pink, the new Amitabh Bachchan film, is a lot like Deepak Sehgal, Amitabh Bachchan's character in the film. Mr Sehgal, a lawyer, inside the courtroom, is all theatrics and showmanship - growling one minute, silent and mumbling the next. Mr Sehgal knows that Indians, particularly, the Indian man, has a hard time understanding Indian women the moment the latter do not fit into the feudal expectations set upon them. Screenwriter Ritesh Shah and director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury know that as well. Hence, they have made a film which drives home the point with OTT sound and fury, just the way Mr Sehgal likes to conduct business; break open the Indian skull with a sledgehammer and drill into it basic concepts of human dignity, respect and honour because achchhe din is a long time coming for women in India. And while doing such social service, Pink, like Mr Sehgal, is never for a second, boring.
The story revolves around Minal (Taapsee Pannu), Falak (Kirti Kulhari) and Andrea (Andrea Tariang) - three young working women based in Delhi. A bad twist of events involving a few young men with powerful political ties has them caught in a web of social stigma, law-and-order problem leading to an arrest and finally a showdown in the courtroom.
Pink, like Madaari, also written by Ritesh Shah, is a film that has the trappings of a thriller to keep the audience guessing about the outcome every minute, while simultaneously engaging them in a conversation about contemporary society. Pink is about the patriarchal mindset which looks at independent women capable of making the same choices as independent, enfranchised men, as 'loose' or 'characterless'.
The screenplay is among the best-written ones of 2016 so far (even though that list isn't long). It is taut, does not beat around the bush and waste time in exposition; for instance, one could easily fall into the trap of 'explaining' where Mr Sehgal's angst is coming from or sketch the 'Girl-from-the-North-East' character Andrea with more detail, but all of that would only make the film longer than necessary.
When you have a great script along with actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Piyush Mishra, Dhritiman Chattejee plus competent young performers like Taapsee and Kirti, you already have a winner in your hands. As such, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, whose Bengali films had a rather sombre, poetic, deliberate aesthetic, does not get to show much directorial flourish in Pink.
A very interesting thing about Pink is how the film holds back the details of the aforementioned 'bad twist of events' up until the beginning of the second half, which is essentially the courtroom part, where everything falls into place. Therefore, the audience is put in the same position as that of the judge, who has no prior information on the plaintiff or the defendant to form an opinion.
As for the performances, Mr Sehgal's role is a cakewalk for Amitabh Bachchan. Piyush Mishra's acting has become very predictable and his turn as the slimy lawyer here too delivers no surprises. Taapsee Pannu is excellent, but more so is Kirti Kulhari. It is refreshing to see her in a strong, demanding role after a promising performance in 2011's Shaitaan. And last but not the least, Angad Bedi. Bedi, as the spoiled son of a politician, rages and froths with hyper-virile masculinity and institutional entitlement. He is a treat to watch.
However, as much as Pink pushes the envelope in Indian films in regard to discussion around morality, women's freedom of choice, etc., one can see Amitabh, the grand old patriarch of Hindi cinema, playing the sole voice of women's rights as regressive. But if not Amitabh, then who? Can one think of a more commanding voice and a more assertive personality than Amitabh Bachchan in Hindi cinema today, regardless of how many 'women-centric' films Kangana Ranaut has done? Pink is a giant leap, sure, but it can only leap so far. Keeping Pink as a starting point, future writer-directors should build on the foundation established by it to make more brave, more daring films on women's issues, where one day, not Amitabh Bachchan, but a woman can stand up and speak for herself and everyone will listen.
(The writer tweets as @devarsighosh .) Published By: AtMigration Published On: Sep 15, 2016 --- ENDS ---
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