Anarkali of Aarah: My Take

Anarkali of Aarah as is film is inherently similar to Pink. Like Pink it toys with the idea of permissibility in the heads of men. And of course, it reaches the same conclusion as it should. But unlike Pink, where the knight in shining armor gets to summarize the idea in his rousing monologue, here it is Anarkali who has the last word and it makes a world of difference.

Anarkali is a singer & dancer who mainly performs erotic numbers in front of a fairly rowdy Bihari audience. How her audience perceives her painfully reminded me of how people in general see female entertainers. While a small minority loves & values them for their craft the majority of the audience merely see them as sex objects.

On the forefront Anarkali is fighting for her respect as a woman & human. But I felt she is also consciously or subconsciously fighting for her respect as an artist. At a crucial moment she gets the chance to choose the latter and give up on the former. But as a self respecting artist & a human being she realizes no art can come out of a sucked out soul and so she chooses to fight back. It is poetic justice then, that she uses her craft as the weapon to bring down her perpetrator in an exhilarating climax sequence.

It's hard to believe that it's writer-director Avinash Das's debut film. There are so many gems of characters be it Anwar (Mayur More) & Hiraman (Couldn't find the actor's name for the love of God) or Sanjay Mishra's deliciously shrewd VC. But the film belongs to Swara Bhaskar's Anarkali and the actress's performance is nothing short of a tour de force. Just watching the change of her gait and the fluctuation of her smile to the same "Mere liye na sahi, desh ke liye..." line could make the an actor-appreciator giddy. To top it all she owns the songs like very few actors have owned their songs in recent years. The way she gleefully croons Mora Piya Matlab Ka Yaar in the studio & amps up the heat in climactic number will bring joy to movie watchers for years to come.

Music director Rohit Sharma also deserve a standing ovation as the mileu of the whole film is set using the music. He also slips in a soulful 'Man Bequaid Hua' amidst the rollicking numbers.

*The rights of the film remains with the makers of Anarkali of Aarah