Women's struggle in Rajasthan - Parched 2015

Rani, Lajjo, Bijli, Janaki 04 struggling women who live in a rural area of Rajasthan India trying to find their freedom and dignity in their society but struggling to do so because of the age-old social norms in those societies. This is the story of them breaking out the shackles of their wings to fly out to find the freedom and their dream life. 

Parched 2015 is a movie that speaks for the struggle of women living in these rural areas in Rajasthan. This injustice not just enclosed to India, this goes around the world and the majority of them being underdeveloped areas. It always comes down to the social norms and stone age-old traditions always in the favor of men's pleasure but ends up injustice the women in that society, Forced child marriage is a very common ritual these rural villagers followers and Parched story is plotted using the forced child marriage of Janaki. The Parched is structured around 4 women,

Lajjo (Radhika Apte) married a drunken very mature husband who she always tries to please but ends up being the wrong person and most of the family gatherings end with Lajjo getting beat up by his husband.

Then Lajjo's friend Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee) who is a widow taking care of her mother in law and her son Gulab, spends the majority of her time and money to find her son a good bride and somehow she manages to find Janaki from the neighboring village to her son.

Janaki (Leher Khan) 15-year-old girl who is a victim of forced child marriage because Rani wants her son Gulab to marry her and they pay for the bride (Janaki) so Janaki has no options but to obey his parents and marry Gulab.

Then there's Bijli (Surveen Chawla) very different from the other 03 characters, she works as a dancer in record dancing company (where men go to see hot girls dance on a stage with loud music) in their local area and in her private time she works as a prostitute. She had this very influential on other 03 girls because she has seen the world out this village she knew the taste of being free from these social ties.

These four characters all have different tastes and dreams in their lives but had to sacrifice them for the reason just being born as a girl. Throughout the story their view of what is the role of a woman in their social change from a dominated girl to a respectable empowered girl. Especially, Rani, she was the one who initiated the marriage between Gulab and Janaki to please her son which is 16 years old, she should have stood up and prevented this from happening instead she had to go with the social norm which she later realized against her own conscience.

In that society, a girl is sold to another family (a man) as a bride, so a woman is materialized in this society, So that gives the idea that the women can be used for anything by anyone who owns them. So Lajjo also faced the same situation with his husband she has no say in their relationship so she fell helpless and finds Rani and seeks her help to fulfill her desires that she couldn't get from her marriage.

The movies show the dark side of the impact because of these injustice happening to girls and also shows us much lighter, The story uses Gulab and Lajjo's husband and other characters show the brutality at the same time there's Kishan who is totally opposite character who helps women in his village.

Kishan who is an entrepreneur in the village gets contracts from the town for his homemade handicrafts, so he employs women in the village and pays them for their work. So the women in the village have this income which helps them to become independent from their husbands. So Kishan played this contrast role against the other men in this village and it helps to balance out the story as well

The movie consists of love and Sex which spice things up and it's very interesting how these 4 women thrive themselves to break the social norms and be free from this injustice. Parched give the message even some girls may succeed in finding their freedom but the majority of them are still living under the harassment of men.

Read the review for Lipstick Under My Burkha where 04 girls fighting with society to find their freedom.