SYNOPSIS

In a rural Indian village called Ujhaas, three ordinary women begin to break free from century-old traditions that have kept them locked in servitude. One fateful fall night, in the lead‐up to the Dussehra festival, the lives of these three women intertwine in the sandy by lanes of Ujhaas. What happens next changes the trajectory of their lives.

PROGRAM NOTE

In the countryside in India, where the practice of
 dowry and child marriage exists but a television does
 not, Rani wants to marry off her childish 17-year-old
 son to the 15-year-old Janaki and visits with her friend
 Rajjo. Like Janaki, who lives in Rani\'s neighboring
 rural village, Rani married at the young age of 14 but
 lost her husband when she was only 16-year-old and
 has been living as a widow with her son ever since.
 Rajjo, who lives in the same neighborhood as Rani
 and is Rani\'s best friend, is suffering from a violent
 and abusive husband and from her infertility. On the
 other hand, Rajjo\'s other good friend Bijili is a dancer
 and prostitute who roams around the countryside,
 where an exciting cultural atmosphere doesn\'t exists,
 to perform and serve men. The film mainly revolves
 around widower Rani, physically abused wife Rajjo,
 young Janaki, and dancer Bijil to examine sex
 discrimination and sexual violence, practices that
 are deeply engrained in rural India as \'tradition\' and
 therefore considered to be right and natural. However,
 Parched establishes itself as a feminist movie by
 going above and beyond the typical representation of
 women as vulnerable, helpless victims by portraying
 these women as humans and individuals.
 One question we ask our mothers a lot, especially as
 daughters of the contemporary generation, is \"Why do
 you live like that?\" Through Rani\'s life, the film Parched
 shows the cheerful, resilient ways these women \"who
 live like that\" try to survive their harsh lives, the cause
 of the conflicts and remorse felt among women, and
 the process of women making the right choice, and
 in doing so seems to offer an answer to this question.
 [Sunah KIM]