Pink Movie Review – This Can Happen to any Girl, Anywhere

Watch this movie…this can happen to any girl, anywhere and experiences like this will change and scar you.
This is a Shoojit Sircar film. There is a real subject of ancient Indian male chauvinism, deep-set prejudices, disrespect for women, an apparent hatred for their existence as thinking individuals; self awarded male power and ruthless injustice. Speak to women about this and in today’s times they will definitely know someone who has undergone this trauma.
“NO”- women have equal right to use this word. When a woman says no, it means “NO”.
She is educated, has left home for career prospects, dresses stylishly, drinks, maybe smokes and has a relationship not covered under the definition of marriage. So what? She is not available. She is a thinking breathing life and she is not a product to be approached for sexual favors. The film and filmmakers drive home this point clearly with in your face clarity. A woman has to feel blessed if men shower attention, if she chooses to protest against unwanted sexual attention, then she is a target of a different nature not a product anymore.
Watch Pink.
The women: – Meenal, Falak and Andrea played by Tapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang – are by the definitions of the society “modern, independent types, uncontrolled types”. Andre even has the North East tag as they are referred to. They workout, have goals, work and accept the fact that they are very visible to the society even when not asking for attention. Translating this would mean they are educated, independent, working girls, who live and charter a course of their lives on their own terms. Unfortunately, even in 2016 the “type” of girls doesn’t fit into the mould carried around by the society and the “modern independent types” are perceived as promiscuous and of loose moral character. Even the law makers and authorities believe, the victims of any attack are themselves responsible for triggering aggressive sexual behavior in men. Sad.

The movie of three young women who rush to their south Delhi home all shaken fearing for their lives and three men brimming with uncontrollable chauvinistic fury and one of whom very seriously injured. The women want the incident to go away and regret the whole time. The three flat mates try to return to their quieter life, close the blinds, believe the world is not watching and believe they have reached normalcy and safety. The movie adamantly does not show the incident during a rock concert which rolls out the series of circumstances. It is given shape in our minds through pieces of dialogues, conversations, accusations, confessions. Each viewer will have an interpretation. That’s smart filmmaking.
Feisty Meenal files a harassment complaint against Rajvir Singh played by Angad Bedi who was injured in the men’s attempt at luring the women. He decides to teach her a lesson and gets her arrested for attempted murder and accuses the three women of soliciting him and his friends that night of the incident.
The men are “power kids” with connections and scant respect for law who use it against women for their gratification and who skipped learning the word “no” in school. In walks, Deepak Sehgal aka Amitabh Bachchan a retired lawyer, a patient of bipolar disorder with an ailing wife and Meenal’s defence counsel. From the house shared by the girls the movie now moves into the courtroom.

Deepak has seen the girls go about their lives from his flat across the road. Piyush Mishra as the prosecutor does what they do always. The character assassination of the girls and you can see that chipping them away at their soul.
This is harsh film directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury who minces no words or reels and looks at real life as we all know add to this superb casting and patriarchy truth in the face story. Amitabh and Meenal exchange an icy stare, no words just confirmation that each know about the other before their paths met and the viewer can build up on the silences, gazes and unspoken words. There is no denying the fact that the characters are very relatable.
This landmark film, solid bodied, tense with Vijay Varma brilliantly exhibiting the ruthlessness women hating Delhi mindset and Vinod Nagpal as the landlord supportive but scared landlord and the unrepenting Sudhanva Deshpande’s Haryanvi cop is remarkable. The film moves from realism and reaches out for hope for the strong willed but vulnerable women. Dhritiman Chatterjee playing a judge dons a superb thinking cap.
“Pink” will ask questions. Face them. If you have a beating heart, you will skip a beat for sure and take home some questions and lots of thoughts.
When the movie “Damini” happened the world was not frothing over with crime. Crime is a women’s reality now. It could be anyone anywhere- Metros, villages, any place across the planet where women live and writer Ritesh Shah has chronicled it superbly.