Parched
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Three friends in a Rajasthan desert village — a widow, a battered wife and a travelling dancer — laugh, swear and talk about sex as they can nowhere else.
In a desert village in Rajasthan, Rani, thirty-two and a widow for fifteen years, pays a large sum for a bride for her teenage son, Gulab: Janki, a fifteen-year-old who has cut off her hair in the hope that the match will be called off. Rani's closest friend, Lajjo, is beaten by her drunken husband, Manoj, and mocked as barren. Their friend Bijli dances for men in a travelling troupe and sells sex to them. Together the three women laugh, swear and talk about sex as they can nowhere else, and Rani begins to flirt with a stranger who keeps calling her mobile phone.
The village gives them little. Its council sends Champa, a young wife, back to the in-laws she says rape her. Kishan, a local entrepreneur whose handicraft business employs village women, is beaten and driven out by Gulab and his friends. Gulab, who spends his time with sex workers, beats Janki and rapes her; she is still a child. Bijli, told she will be replaced by a younger dancer, is pushed into brutal sex work to keep earning.
On a trip to an old fort, Lajjo begins to suspect that it is her husband who cannot father a child. Bijli takes her to a mystic who lives in a cave, a lover of Bijli's; Lajjo sleeps with him and becomes pregnant. Gulab steals the last of his mother's savings, attacks Janki and walks out. Rani sells the house, pays off her debts and releases Janki from the marriage, so that the girl can go back to the boy she loves and to her studies. When Lajjo tells Manoj she is pregnant, he beats her. On the night the village burns its effigy of the demon king Ravana, he falls into the fire, and Lajjo stops Rani from putting it out. Rani, Lajjo and Bijli leave the village together, in search of a life of their own.
Starring
Tannishtha Chatterjeeas Rani
A widow who has struggled alone for fifteen years and arranges her teenage son's marriage by village custom.
Rani’s story
Rani is thirty-two, a widow for fifteen years, keeping an old mother-in-law and her son, Gulab, on what she can earn. She pays a large sum for his bride, and when she sees that fifteen-year-old Janki has cut off her hair she weeps at the mockery to come; later she discourages the girl from reading. When her friend Bijli comes to bless the couple, Rani will not meet her eyes. Yet with Bijli and Lajjo she laughs and swears freely, and she flirts on the phone with a stranger who keeps calling even after she tells him her age. When Gulab steals her savings, attacks Janki and walks out, Rani sells the house, pays her debts and releases Janki. Lajjo stops her putting out the fire that catches Manoj, and the three friends leave the village together.
Radhika Apteas Lajjo
Rani's closest friend, beaten by her husband and scorned as barren, who begins to suspect the fault is his.
Lajjo’s story
Lajjo is beaten by her drunken husband, Manoj, and scorned by the village as barren. After one beating she goes to Rani, bares her wounds without a word and lets her friend rub balm into them. With Rani and Bijli she laughs and swears as she can nowhere else. On a trip to an old fort she begins to suspect that it is Manoj who cannot father a child, and Bijli takes her to a mystic who lives in a cave, Bijli's own lover. Lajjo sleeps with him and becomes pregnant. She tells Manoj, expecting the news to please him, and he beats her. On the night the village burns its effigy of the demon king Ravana, Manoj falls into the fire, and Lajjo holds Rani back from putting it out. Then she leaves the village with her two friends.
Surveen Chawlaas Bijli
A dancer and sex worker in a travelling troupe, the friend who says what the others cannot.
Bijli’s story
Bijli dances for the village men in a travelling troupe and sells sex to them. Her friendship with Rani began the night she brought Rani's husband home too drunk to walk, and the two women sat up talking till morning. When she comes to bless Gulab's wedding, the crowd murmurs and Rani will not look at her. Because she is turning down more of the sex work, her boss threatens to replace her with a younger dancer, Rekha. She takes her friends to an old fort, notices that no curse word shames men and invents some, and takes Lajjo to her lover, the mystic in the cave. Back at the troupe she finds Rekha in her place, and is pushed into brutal sex work with many men to keep earning. She leaves the village with Rani and Lajjo.
Riddhi Senas Gulab
Rani's teenage son, who resents women's freedom and turns his anger on his wife and his mother.
Adil Hussainas Mystic lover
A mystic who lives in a cave, a lover of Bijli's, with whom Lajjo conceives the child her husband cannot give her.
Why it matters
Parched looks at a village where violence against women is not hidden but organised: a council that returns a wife to the men who rape her, a bride bought at fifteen, a husband who beats his wife for his own infertility. Against that it sets friendship, and the three women's pleasure in their bodies and their jokes, which the film treats as a form of resistance. Critics split. NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee wrote that it goes where Indian cinema rarely does without becoming exploitative; the Hindu called it an unconvincing indictment of patriarchy that feels staged. It premiered at Toronto in 2015, reached Indian cinemas in 2016 and earned more in France than at home. Its ending lets three women walk away. What stays behind is Champa, and every girl like her who is still in the village.