Pink Movie Review: Powerful, Poignant, Pertinent

Way back in 1993, Rajkumar Santoshi's Damini, a powerful film about a lawyer and a woman standing up for her rights, had made everyone sit up and rethink  about women's rights and patriarchy and now, years later, Shoojit Sircar's production venture Pink is raising the same questions, which are still relevant after all these years.

Meenal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak (Kirti Kulhari) and Andrea (Andrea Tariang) are three young women living as room-mates in New Delhi. When Meenal is accused of attempting to murder Rajveer (Angad Bedi), a man belonging to a connected family, Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan), a retired lawyer takes up cudgels on their behalf and makes a comeback to the court-room to prove that his clients are indeed victims and not perpetrators. Will truth and justice prevail or will might will be proven to be right?

Amitabh Bachchan, who has been playing a meek and mild-mannered character in his past few films, is back with his righteous wrath and we cannot help but be spell-bound as the veteran takes the court-room by storm. Indeed, Pink is Big B's finest work in the recent past and we would not mind watching the film once again just to see the silver-haired legal eagle in action. The director has wisely kept Sehgal's background in the dark, making him more of a 'Man With No Name' character, a lone gunslinger, who steps in to clean up a town and rides away in the sunset after vanquishing the bad guys. However, Bachchan's Deepak is no Govind from 'Damini'… there is an inexplicable vulnerability about his character, which initially raises doubts about his competence in the court-room and makes the character more heroic.

Taapsee Pannu and Kirti Kulhari, who play the female protagonists, have packed in powerful performances and there are scenes involving the two, which will surely bring a lump to your throats. The film also stars the inimitable Piyush Mishra and the actor, who had impressed us in his last film Happy Bhaag Jaayegi, does so once again with his portrayal of an ostensibly insensitive lawyer. Angad Bedi is decent enough (though he doesn't get to do much except for scowling menacingly) while Vijay Verma arrests your attention even in a short role.

The film is a must-watch on many levels. The first half of the film is dedicated to establishing the main characters and the mysterious incident that provoked the legal action. Indeed, there is a sense of mystery about what actually happened that night and the director skillfully and slowly unravels the plot in the second half. The second half is a cracking legal thriller as the two lawyers indulge in a no-holds barred legal battle to establish the truth and is a sheer delight for fans of courtroom dramas.

However, Pink is not just a legal thriller. Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury raises many pertinent questions about what constitutes acceptable behavior for women, the hypocrisy of genders, the concept of morals in an Indian society and the question of consent. My only complaint with the film is that though it is gripping on an emotional level and kept me engaged till the very end, the final judgement in the case seemed more influenced by a moving speech rather than proving of facts and law points.

Nevertheless, the film could not have come at a better time- even in this era, when women are still expected to adhere to certain guidelines to avoid being molested or raped, a dose of Pink is what everyone needs this weekend…