A radical film - erotic drama, designed to fit into the festival circuit, director Leena Yadav's "Parched" is a feeble attempt to draw eyeballs, and it succeeds to a certain extent. Perceived and presented from a woman's point of view, "Parched" is a slice-of-life and a generic representation of women in rural India. Without breaking any moulds, the film portrays the women in all hues, as victims of a sexist culture and their zest for joie-de-vivre. It touches upon issues like child marriage, bad marriages which include spousal and familial rape, male abuse, societal pressures, male and female infertility, and liberation. These issues have invariably been presented to the Indian audience in Hindi cinema, over a period of time, hence Yadav's narrative lacks the novelty factor. But what keeps you glued are the performances and the bright colourful canvas on which it is drawn.
