Film: Pinky Beauty Parlour (Releasing on April 14). Duration: 111 minutes.
Writer and Director: Akshay Singh. Cast: Sulagna Panigrahi, Jogi Mallang, Vishwanath Chatterjee, Akshay Singh, Anupama Negi, Sangam Rai, Arpita Banerjee, Khusboo Gupta and Abhay Joshi.
Cinematography: Gagandeep Singh. Music: Arvind /Lyton and Chintu Saarthak Kalla.
Rating: ****
One could have an eye operation for better eyesight, but not for better attitude. This one is a special movie that highlights the plight of dark-skinned young women who are oppressed and insulted with subtle jibes about their skin colour.
India is obsessed with fairness, despite being a dark-skinned nation. The unprecedented race to be fair, marry a fair-skinned person, or even have fair-skinned children is remarkable in our country and in the process we marginalise all those who are dusky, or dark-skinned.
This film also revolves around two sisters, Pinky (Sulagna Panigrahi) and Bulbul (Khusboo Gupta), one being fair and the other dark.
Pinky, the one who's fair, checks all the boxes for being pretty and desirable, but she is rotten, uncaring, jealous and downright mean. Her dark-skinned sister (Bulbul), on the other hand, is responsible, caring, giving and upholds certain standards.
The film is set in a place called Lanka in Varanasi, where Bulbul runs her beauty parlour, and her parents having passed away, she is all by herself running the establishment, feeding the employees, handling social pressure, and even supporting her sister's career as well. But life isn't easy for her.
The pressure of being 'undesirable' gets to Bulbul, and one day, hen her sister returns home and steals the one thing she really cares for, she hangs herself.
The obsession with fair skin, which is deeply rooted in our society, and how it affects the lives of people is something we all might know, but we aren't aware of, and this film highlights that space.
The story and screenplay is the life of this film, which flowed smoothly because of the stellar performances. There are many parallel tracks in the movie, but these merge so subtly that it looks obvious. Still, the movie makes you pause and introspect about what we all have done or said that is wrong at some point in our lives.
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