Parched, All Set To Be A Success Even Before Release

Pink has paved the way for cinema on ‘What Women Want’. This Friday’s release Parched comes to India after winning laurels the worldover.

While Pink is about a 3 female flat mates in Delhi, Leela Yadav’s Parched takes us right into the heartless heartland where women are still treated as the inferior sex into the lives of four rural women in Rajasthan. The film , like Pan Nalin’s Angry Young Godesses and Aniruddh Roy Choudhuri’s Pink celebrates the strength of sisterhood and the power of combating misogyny.

Says the Parched director Leena Yadav, “There is space for many films about the Indian woman. Mine is one of them.Strong cinema on such a theme  can only be a good sign for the changing attitude towards women in our society.Parched is my deepest innermost expression.”

Ajay Devgn has  taken on a  new avatar.Having acted in socially relevant films like Zakham and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh and directed a film on Alzeihmers(U Me Aur Hum) Devgan has  now  become the messiah of globally acceptable  meaningful movies .  Parched set in Rajasthan was  shot  by no less than Russel Carpenter. Russell Carpenter was the cinematographer of James Cameron’s Titanic.

Interestingly the film is co-produced by a very accomplished Indian cinematographer Aseem Bajaj who has shot Devgn’s Golmaal films.

Aseem’s wife Leena Yadav(who directed Ben Kingsley and Amitabh Bachchan in Teen Patti) directs Parched.

Parched has been bathed in encomium by the Western press .

Wrote  the Bollywood  Reporter, “(Tannishtha) Chatterjee in particular must demonstrate the full spectrum of transformation from enabler to disrupter, first acting as a victim and agent of oppression before discovering methods of appropriating local traditions to her own advantage.”

Tannishta said, “I am floored by the reviews and the response … Finally women are finding their voices as filmmakers. At the Venice film festival where my film Island City  also directed by a woman , Ruchika Oberoi was screened ,won the best debut prize … It’s a big thing.  Now to be reading such fab reviews about Parched and also about my performance . It’s again Leena Yadav a woman director writing  tales about contemporary rural women whose lives are controlled by the patriarchal system.”

Parched  gets the prestigious  Variety’s approval:   “Thanks to attentive writing and sturdy performances, the director’s characters are so compellingly realized that it’s easy to succumb to the film’s hopefulness

Adds  Hollywood Reporter: “Working closely with Oscar-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Titanic) and Alexander Payne collaborator Kevin Tent, Leena Yadav compassionately frames the lives of characters experiencing nearly constant turmoil, while Carpenter burnishes the ocher and orange hues of the Rajasthan desert locations to a subtle glow.”

How will Parched perform at the Indian boxoffice?

Says trade analyst  Atul Mohan, “Its prospects depends on word of mouth like Pink which saw jump in numbers with strong word of mouth. It remains to be seen how multiplexes extend their support to the film because of Ajay Devgn. The film has many international awards and recognitions to its credit and is likely to bepatronised by high end multiplex audience.”