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Hindi Documentary Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Film Review: Gulabi
Gang: Social re-engineering
Cast: Sampat pal Devi, Ram Dulari, Devrati, Husna,
Kusum
Director: Nishta Jain
Rating: *
* * ½
The film documents a revolution in the making among the poorest
of the poor, as the fiery women of the Gulabi Gang empower themselves and take
up the fight against gender violence, caste oppression and widespread
corruption. The movement started way back in 2006, when Pal began a women's collective that took the
law into its own hands. It came to be known as Gulabi Gang because all the
members wore pink saris and carried pink lathis.
This subject is certainly not new to documentary- Kim Loginotto
was the first to go there with her ‘Pink Saris’ and there are others too in the
making, including a fiction feature starring Madhuri Dixit Nene and Juhi Chawla
as the two central antagonists. But those efforts don’t take anything away from
Nishta’s sterling work. The uneducated widow, Sampat Pal in Nishta’s film, is
strong and secure in the knowledge that people in power fear her. She knows how
to negotiate her way through an intensely conservative people - with a measured
assurance that would even put a highly educated diplomat to shame. And why not?
The women of the region have begun to depend on her and she is willing enough
to go the distance to help them regain their rights.
But it’s not always
smooth-sailing, Sampat Pal is called on to negotiate for justice on a brutal
murder masked as suicide , within her own family and at another point in the
film she has to deal with a member of her own brigade, Husna, who has turned
hostile following another incident of brutality within her (Husna’s)family. The
camera dutifully follows Sampat Pal right through her investigation-from her
visit to the victim’s home, her conversations with the neighbours, her frank
and fearless opinions on the event, her debunking of the Police who are
unwilling to file a case for want of a complaint and to her calling on the dead
woman’s family, urging them to come forward with a complaint that they are
loath to make(for reasons of insecurity). It’s a rough and tiring ride but
Sampat Pal is indefatigable in her efforts to right the wrongs of society. At
97 minutes the film is powerful, engrossing and completely captivating. And it’s
all because the central character is so completely assured of her ability to
get women to become more proactive in their own defense. It’s inspiring and
truthful and even manages to question Sampat Pal’s own beliefs on testy matters
that involve her family members. Sampat pal of course, comes out smelling like
roses.. and why not? She is after all the queen of the Pink Brigade!
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