More than 3 hours and I am still feeling suffocated with an utterly devastating
insight about how inhuman, ruthless and cold-blooded our society can be. Wooden
faced impassive men are shamelessly trying to cover up a planned murder of a
young girl to avoid legal consequences for the family in question; quoting a
Ramayana stanza that reads it’s all written in the destiny and we are no one to
change. There is also a mother who doesn’t blink in doubts while confessing that
she would totally understand the intensity of the crime if their sons could
kill their own sister for dishonoring the family by marrying a man of her own
choice. If this all looks or sounds an exaggerated dramatized plot of some thriller,
let me pinch, punch and shake you up to the harsh reality we are in.
Nishtha Jain’s shockingly real GULABI GANG is packed with such shameful episodes
and each one makes me feel like crying out loud over our dying empathy for
humanity but that’s not all. There is a ray of hope too and in the courageous name
of Sampat Pal, the founder lady of a pink clad women group aka the Gulabi Gang.
In the Bundelkhand Region, Sampat Pal runs an organization at her own to
help women fight against crime. We all have seen her in a reality show on Indian
television. We all, at some point have laughed at her overtly simple behavior
but here, she beats us all and emerges as one of most determined, powerful and extremely
concerned social worker. She can smell the fishy. She can make things in
process. She can talk unhesitantly for the right. With her gang of 15000+
members, she does ‘dharna’ and ‘hunger strike’ against the powerful and
corrupts. She leads, guides, educates and empowers the suppressed women around
her. She shows us to be the voice for a change in this conservative, regressive
and thoroughly patriarchy ruling power of men.
Nishtha Jain brilliantly documents the workings of the gang. From capturing
the all burnt into ashes body of the girl murdered to questioning the local
police in charge for their inactivity in filing the case, she actively participates
as an earnest investigative partaker. Watch out for a shot where camera shows
villagers of all ages gathered to witness the event but don’t really want to be
vocal about and start moving out to leave the frame empty at the end.
Documentaries are known to be dead factual and less entertaining but GULABI
GANG is sure an exception. If it makes you cringe with deeply disturbing truth of
our society, fuming over your helplessness to bring some change and feel
extremely sensitive about the sufferings women are facing in some part of our
country not very far from where we are, it also fills you with its sheer proportion
of entertainment. For instance; in an incident, as Sampat Pal recollects, one uninformed
lady was told to give her vote on the symbol ‘Chair’ of course on the ballot
paper but she ended up putting stamp over a wooden chair nearby and the mistake
got repeated for more than 50 times for the women next in line. Ironic but
entertaining!
Overall, there can never be a pretext why one should not watch it. We may
not have time to spare from our ‘comforted’ life schedules. We may have our own
priorities in life to make it better but trust me; this is bigger than yours
and definitely not something out of this world. A little concern and some acknowledgement
will do much in restoring the humanity in us. A must-watch! [4/5]
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