Anaarkali of Arrah takes cues from Pink, pushes the envelope

Mainstream Bollywood shies away from subjects that aren’t glamorous enough for the multiplex audience. Anaarkali of Arrah does the opposite. It finds perhaps the least relatable protagonist for the urban viewer, and places you in the middle of her desperate struggle to be seen as a person.

Anaarkali (Swara Bhaskar) is an orchestra singer in south Bihar’s Arrah. She is poor, sings lyrics with double entendre, and is treated like a sex worker.

Dharmendra Chauhan (Sanjay Mishra), the vice-chancellor of a prestigious university, gets drunk at one of her shows and molests her. It’s the last straw.

Anaarkali is determined to make the system make him pay. The system doesn’t even acknowledge that an injustice has occurred.

The movie takes cues from last year’s Pink and pushes the envelope. Pink’s heroines were educated and somewhat resourceful. Anaarkali can’t even afford a lawyer. She is on her own and her fight is nonexistent to most of her community.

In his handling of the subject, director Avinash Das displays his understanding of a delicate social structure where pretention is more important than moral righteousness.

He succeeds in turning the audience into the third party, and then makes it difficult for them to stay neutral.

There are moments of melodrama and farce, but that doesn’t keep Das from crafting an impactful film that lands a real punch in the climax. Bhaskar is marvellous, and gets apt support from Pankaj Tripathi and Mishra.

Where Anaarkali… succeeds best is in bringing forth a world that’s been out of focus for far too long. These are battles being fought every day, Anaarkali… screams, and the least we can do is acknowledge them.