Earlier, Shoojit Sircar had made a movie named Pink, which
sent across a strong message that a woman's consent should never be taken for
granted irrespective of her occupation, her background or her attire. Swara
Bhaskar's newest release Anaarkali Of Aarah, which is set in bucolic Bihar,
sends across the same message but doesn't lack in packing an equally powerful
punch, despite its comparatively smaller budget.
The story revolves around Anarkali (Swara Bhaskar) is a
singer-dancer, who specializes in bawdy numbers and entertains her exclusively
male audience with her 'latka-jhatkas'. But, when a politically connected
official (Sanjay Mishra) tries to paw and grope her on stage in an intoxicated
stage, the aggressive Anaarkali decides to fight back and take on the corrupt
and chauvinistic system. Her act of defiance forces Anaarkali to go on the run
and how she manages to deal with the challenges that come her way, forms the
rest of the plot.
Swara has been proving her mettle since a long time and
after hit film Nil Battey Sannata, she comes back with another influential
performance as Anaarkali, who confesses to not being 'doodh ki dhooli', but
that doesn't mean any man can grope or paw her without her consent. Swara is aggressive
and vulnerable in equal measures and your heart goes out to her as she stands
alone against a system, which cannot comprehend why a 'naachne-gaanewali'
should object to being treated like a piece of meat.
Pankaj Tripathi as her colleague Rangeela too is effective
enough in depicting a flawed character, who wants to help Anaarkali, but is a
slave of his conditioning at the same time. Mishra, who has been amusing us
with his funny roles since years, is awesome in her act. The rest of the
supporting cast too is unexpectedly good and adds more flavor to the plot.
In general, Anaarkali Of Aarah comes across as the rural
equivalent of Pink but what makes the movie bigger is the fact that it doesn't
have the superstar Amitabh Bachchan admonishing the viewers in his remarkable
baritone that a 'No means No'. Here, Bhaskar does most of the talking and that
too, with dialogues liberally peppered with abuses. The movie has some effective
dialogues and the climax scene is definite to make you pump your fist in the
air as Anaarkali finally gets her revenge.
Overall, it is worthy to watch once for the powerful act of Swara
Bhaskar with a strong social message.
No comments:
Post a Comment