“Where the walls are not the limits, but the protective power;
Where the ribbon is Beauty’s strangling weapon;
Where the color of her lips does not attract, but drives away the Beast;
Where the nails with all their polka dots, notches and scars the bad flesh and dump it into the garbage of sins;
Where the drink does not shine with sensual undertones, but washes the mind Social;
Where color drives away my fear; I would love to bleed PINK.”
‘Pink’ is a feminine color, and there is no logical reasoning behind it, except for other scholastic information authorized by our society; in fact, children who wear ‘Pink’ are a stigma; tarnishes his masculinity. The hue that beautifies the roses and marks the meat as fresh; the one that sweetens the cotton candy and bubbles the blood of the scapegoat, becomes another metaphor for effeminate qualities, thanks to our well-versed and extremely intellectual society.
The ambiguity of the ideas related to Pink has been well narrated in a stage version by Shoojit Sircar and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. The story is quite simple and predictable; revolves around three working women of the present time, who share a rented apartment, free of personal and social prejudices, in short, with all the characteristics of the so-called “extroverted and inflexible” women rather than of independent and individualistic women of the society. In fact, they get into trouble with some rich and influential chauvinistic guys and so an episode of molestation follows with an elaborate trial session (which is the real part of the plot), of course, of the girls, not from the boys.
The girls file a complaint and in return are forced to stand on deck with conflicting charges against them. Does the idea sound familiar? Yes, indeed it is; we have faced such stark and realistic court sessions with women, in more serious situations such as Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan (1997), BR Chopra’s Insaaf Ka Tarazu (1980), Tapan Sinha’s Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982), and without forget the real story of Suzette Jordan, victim of the Park Street incident in 2012. The fictions mentioned, as well as the real event, draw a plausibility of ideas, where the victim herself was asked for the testimony of her character, in the courtroom medical examination, at the police station and finally at the court. Rather, the movie showed what its trailer showed, unlike movies like Drishyam., that it had already revealed the story through its trailer, but had kept something ‘yet to know’, through its plot structure. Also, the questions being asked and raised today are identical to those asked 30 years ago, so what has changed? But even though this is true, Pink (2016) stands out among them, in several aspects-
1. The story is framed in a contemporary society, the characters are relevant, they are real and they have the ability to combat their fears. It is true, we are afraid to step forward in the face of crime; the unfair seems rather demonic.
However, not only brave girls rise up against their fears, but also an old man, who had lost all hope in himself and his profession (due to his inappropriate psychological disposition), gets a chance to prove his expertise, and it does. deftly, fighting her fear of him in the process. Here comes the excellence of Sree Amitabh Bachchan who subtly manages to give the expression of him as a willing but weak person. (due to age and mental health issues) When the courtroom session begins in the second half, we expect Amitabh Bachchan to hit on the prosecution immediately, but unfortunately, the elderly Mr. Sehgal has the finesse of a lawyer , but lacks the confidence to present his case, due to the long time gap and disconnection of the practice, he gradually develops and gathers himself through the proceedings, which is a commendable thing.
2. The film bridges the mentality gap between the past and the present; it falsifies the notion that people of the past generation have orthodox ideas about social norms, which is basically a promotion of patriarchy; In this film, a 74-year-old lawyer, Deepak Sehgal, believes and defends the three young women, for truth, justice and righteousness, while most of the so-called enlightened and enlightened contemporary society of the present, is still in the darkness of corruption. assumptions, regarding what a girl should do and what she shouldn’t do.
3. The director constantly intrigues our senses with contradictions and open situations. The movie has been called PINK, which is a creative contradiction to society’s operational thought process, that color symbolizes weakness, shyness, submissiveness, grace, elegance, and anything delicate. From the tongue-in-cheek title, we know that what he’s going to show will be the complete opposite, and it IS the story of bravery, courage, righteousness, and all the qualities that stand for strong. Minal’s sexual abuse is kept with a ‘?’, and I believe this has been done on purpose to keep us on our toes, the open nature of this incident has been emphasized with the cinematography as well as through the lawyer’s dialogue delivery sehgal. , who mistakenly calls it ‘raped’ first and then corrects it to ‘molested’, so that we as the audience are not sure what the fact really is, is she raped or abused? Also the open-ended beginning of the film, where the actual event of the rock concert night is never clearly shown, until the very end, tickles the audience’s thought process.
4. Unlike the other movies mentioned above, this one shows a positive start for the society; justice is finally done; note, Dahan’s pink sari, became a soft spot for legal proceedings, the pink rays of sunset in Gopalpur marked the shameful and humiliating trial of an enlightening but defeated woman in Adalat O ekti Meye, but the Rosa de Minal bra made us all proud as women, she defended herself with courage and enthusiasm; she saved lives, and in that the film is different, despite being the same.
Pink is different because it shows struggle. Minal doesn’t succumb to his fate, instead giving the brat the bottle, which is a great thing; The instinctive fear of moving, the fear of standing up, the fear of pushing and the fear of hitting hard that a woman absorbs into her when being touched by a man has been erased in this film. A girl for the first time, she doesn’t submit to patriarchal beliefs, but instead beats them hard until she bleeds; the courage to break the bottle is important; when you are being attacked, the natural defense mechanism is important; the consequences will follow; Now imagine, if Minal had lost her strength in the hotel room and been raped, would that save her some social humiliation that she was experiencing now, after being accused of attempted murder? No. Things would all be the same; society would mock her and question her character even then, history proves it; So why not fight and face it? Take the beating and then pay for it, instead of getting trampled on and yet paying the price. Death must be of glory and not of shame; “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” -Mark Twain
Women, you must keep the fire burning within you, so that you can fight with honor before you die; fear will try to scare you, but never back down, never back down in the battle of life, use the color Pink as your strength, as your weapon to brutally decapitate all ugly minds.