The iron lady Sampat Pal, first made an appearance in the infamous reality show BIGG BOSS and got introduced to the entire nation through her own explanations of the movement started against the widespread injustice to rural women. Yet, her exact work and motive remained unclear to many until another news came that a film is being made on Sampat Pal and her ‘Gulabi Gang’ featuring Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla in the lead. The phrase indicating towards hundreds of women wearing Pink sarees with sticks in hands got some instant fame and now just before this Bollywood project we get to see an inspiring, informative and well thought of documentary titled “Gulabi Gang” released with a perfect timing.
However, it remains the second documentary made on the subject after British documentarian Kim Longinotto came with her 96 minutes version called “Pink Saris” in 2010. But the fact doesn’t take away anything from the honest attempt made by the director Nishtha Jain in her Indian take on the theme and the film rightly won few deserving awards in the recent film festivals too. Taking the viewer into the Northern India interiors of Bundelkhand (Uttar Pradesh) it actually opens on a lighter note wherein all the village ladies dressed in pink sarees are trying to learn the defense, fighting with lathis (strong, long sticks). Later it is told that the group was founded by Sampat Pal in the year 2006 and then there are few cases shown, where she is fighting for the justice, both with the villagers as well as the administration following her strong determination.
The first long sequence of an interesting investigation of a so called kitchen accident killing a recently married girl pulls the viewers in and the stage is set to see something highly moving, shocking and disturbing too. But honestly I found the film quite less than the expected, probably because there were too many loud praises being made in the media before its theatrical release and the film didn’t come out to be that impressive or hard hitting as I was assuming. In simple words it does have its own strong merits but few weaker points too which eventually couldn’t give me the experience I was looking for.
Stating its worth mentioning bright points, the film once again makes you ashamed of the “Man Ruled” society in our rural areas, where a women is still treated as a means of cooking food, looking after your home, taking care of your kids and giving you the bodily pleasure at nights without thinking anything else beyond these four things. It shows you the exact way how most of the villagers are simply used to such brutal rapes, killings and physical torture of their own women like nothing new happening in their daily lives. Further it also boldly reveals how the corrupt politicians and local government officials truly rule over these people like the regional autocratic kings owning them all. To provide some relief moments. the director rightly incorporates the element of humor in few early sequences of this otherwise tense documentary. And then she also balances the script showcasing the rebels of the ‘Gulabi Gang’ too in its concluding half an hour.
In fact the inclusion of this long interview of a lady leaving the gang for her own (shocking) personal justifications clearly indicates that most of the times, a woman herself takes this suffering in the name of tradition or fate, which eventually doesn’t let her break the ugly vicious circle of suppression as desired. And probably this remains the basic reason, that despite having a ‘Gulabi Gang’ operational in their own region, the people still vote for the corrupt politician and deliberately choose to be on the suffering end willfully as their ancestral custom. Therefore, watching the film you not only feel helpless and annoyed but also have a great amount of admiration and respect for their fiery leader Sampat Pal fighting for them with an honest & focused vision. The documentary does make you emotional in its few scenes but questionably doesn’t bring in this essential element often in its less than two hours of narration.
Mentioning its weaker points, I somehow couldn’t get the way it was conceived by the director as a documentary. Because most of the times, its scenes looked like all staged or explained in advance to the participants before commencing the shoot. In other words, Sampat Pal always looked like doing it for the camera in a deliberate mode and after so much media attention; it seems that the lady has fast learned how to play with the lens like a professional actor. Also, the execution raised a major doubt that would she behave exactly in the same manner when there is no camera or crew around?
Secondly, though the film keeps the viewer engaged with some interesting case investigations by the group leaders but it actually doesn’t reveal the outcome of the same or any information about the justice served or not in those featured cases.
Thirdly, when you are watching an intense documentary called “Gulaabi Gang” then the most obvious question coming to your mind is that “Why the colour Pink or Gulaabi?”. But sadly there is no answer to this query in Nishtha’s thoughtful attempt, which should have been there like the first requisite of such a project, ideally.
Lastly, I didn’t found any statutory warning on the screen in the sequence where a lady lights up a cigarette and starts smoking. So is this not mandatory for DOCUMENTARIES to use the caption or the Censor Board has lifted the restriction imposed upon the film makers finally?
Anyway, though Nishtha Jain’s GULAABI GANG has its own technical shortcomings. But still it rises much above the usual pattern of uninteresting documentaries and brings forward a sick, embarrassing and ages old truth of our traditional system, for which a lady alone is fighting wearing a Pink Saree.
Hence there are no second opinion to the fact that ‘Sampat Pal’ remains a chosen one, having all that courage, strength and conviction to fight against this cruel injustice. And she surely deserves a standing ovation for this courageous ongoing effort from one and all.
Ending on an introspective note, in the last scene of the film, a passerby on the railway station asks one of the members of “Gulaabi Gang” waiting for their train to come that, “Do you get anything from all this in return?”. The less educated member nods in negative but I would personally like to give an answer to the worldly question that, “The most important things in this world are available to you free of cost and the most important tasks in a life also have to be done without asking anything in return.....!”
In all, as a gesture of respect towards this remarkable woman Sampat Pal, the documentary deserves to be seen in the theaters and Nishtha Jain’s soulful attempt also needs to be applauded by ‘we the viewers’ unanimously. More so because, we would like to see the documentaries on our own people to be made by our Indian film-makers only and not the foreigners!
Rating : 3 / 5
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