Pink is the new black

Of late critics and I have stopped agreeing to each other all together. Of course, the instances of agreement were few and far between. But we have now mutually decided to part ways forever and lead our own lives.

This Sunday was dedicated to Gulab Gang. When you have Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla in the same screen space for the first time, all the controversy about whether the movie is based on the real-life Gulabi Gang, and comparisons with the recent documentary, Gulabi Gang, one watch is a must.

So there I was on a Sunday morning for my dose of women empowerment. 

Let me say this at the very outset, no matter how many disclaimers go up before the movie begins to avoid legal hassles, the similarities are too 'coincidental' to believe that Gulab Gang has nothing to do with Gulabi Gang and Madhuri Dixit is not on-screen Sampat Pal.

Moving on from the similarities, Gulab Gang is definitely worth a watch to see Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla share the screen. Dixit, as the village belle turned rebel, and Chawla, as the cold, corrupt politician, make for formidable adversaries. It is delightful to see Chawla wielding her sweet smile but for a bad cause. But a lot is left unexplored once the rivalry becomes predictable and a game of tit-for-tat, with each group killing members of the other group left, right, & center.

I, personally, prefer the fictionalized version of Sampat Pal to the documentary because it touches on the reasons for the gang and the problems faced by them in more detail than the documentary. The reasons, definitely, needed a little more time to make an impact. Rajjo's (Dixit's character) fight for education and Sumitra Devi's (Chawla's character) battle to have complete control in a man's world are not very different from each other, although their methods vary.

Certain scenes would leave the audience cringing and feminists and human rights activists bawling. But that is expected to happen when a man deals with a woman empowerment film.

The climax is a tribute to the iconic climax of Mirch Masala, right from the red gulal (red chillie powder in the original) to the farmer's sickle. And a very clever presence of a foreigner lady documenting the entire event could be treated as a reference to Kim Longinotto's documentation of the Gulabi Gang.

For all the people rooting for Gulab Gang to be a misrepresentation of the real Gulabi Gang's works, I'd say the documentary never shows us the extent to which the real gang would go to provide justice and fight for its causes. Maybe the real Gulabi Gang could pull a few tricks from the Gulab Gang bag. After all, life imitates art imitates life.