Parched

Filmmaker Leena Yadav's well-acted melodrama centers on Indian women who are outcasts of a kind (two live in a town so remote that no one has a TV). Rani (Tannistha Chatterjee), a widow, has arranged for her 17-year-old son, Gulab (Riddhi Sen), to marry Janaki (Lehar Khan), a 15-year-old from a neighboring town. Although Rani liked to read as a child, her studious days ended when she got married. She and her best friend, Lajjo (Radhika Apte), do sewing work for Kishan (Sumeet Vyas), whose wife has a college education, causing the townspeople to view her with suspicion. When Janaki fails to live up to Gulab's expectations, he turns to alcohol and prostitutes. Lajjo's life is no better: her husband beats her because she hasn't been able to bear children. When Rani's girlhood friend, Bijli (Surveen Chawla), an exotic dancer, comes to town, the women finally have a worldly friend with whom they can talk freely. Bijli recommends a unique way that Lajjo can determine whether she's really infertile, or whether the problem lies with her husband. While the fight against an oppressive patriarchy sometimes feels more like wish fulfillment than real life, any happy endings are certainly earned, and Oscar-winning Titanic cinematographer Russell Carpenter's camerawork finds the beauty in the surroundings. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)