I recently had the opportunity to watch the Bollywood film “Gulaab Gang”. It was a very interesting film, although it is not at all what I was expecting. The film begins with the child Rajjo being berated by her stepmother for trying to educate herself. As she begins learning the alphabet, the village becomes convinced she is possessed, and puts her through many unbelievable and extremely painful rituals to remove it from her. They can’t comprehend a girl wanting an education. Then, it fast forwards to the adult Rajjo, who has formed a gang of pink-sari-clad warrior women, who fight to protect the rights of females and oppressed villagers throughout the land. They often resort to violence in their attempts to stop those corrupt politicians, police, and thieves who try to ruin the villagers. Then, election season begins. A corrupt female politician, who goes by the title Madam, tries to convince Rajjo to support her. With Raja’s endorsement, the villagers would gladly follow her lead. However, one of Madam’s cronies’ son rapes a girl in the village using headphones. Madam does not deal with the problem in a way Rajjo approves of, so Rajjo’s gang guts off the ears of the son. Rajjo’s goal is to get a school built in the village, so her gang does not have to educate the young village girls with their limited knowledge and poor supplies. However, as Rajjo realizes Madam will not build her school, she decides to run against Madam. Madam goes to extreme levels to try to win the election. Some of her out of control corrupt cops shoot one of Rajjo’s close friends, and an assassin poisons another, who he had seduced. In the end, Madam brings a corrupt police officer and her henchmen into the Gulaab Gang’s home base on Holi, in a colorful attempt to exterminate the gang after her victory in the election. However, it goes south for her and Rajjo cuts off her hands. Rajjo is arrested, but the school gets funding, and she is able to teach from prison.

The film is riddled with ridiculous fight scenes of Rajjo taking out many lowlifes with her axe, sickle, and other weapons. Twice, she pulls off a flying leap involving jumping into the air, and kicking off the hood of a truck, before striking down several surprised men. The film also had 3 or 4 oddly choreographed songs, which seemed very out of place with both the pacing and mood of the script. Seeing these danced really took away from the intimidation factor of these otherwise very powerful women. Still, the film was enjoyable, and generally supported the message of fighting for women’s rights.

The strangest thing about this film is that it claims to not be based off of any real events. yet, there was an actual Gang, called the Gulabi Gang, which fought for women’s rights while wearing homemade pink Saris, and often resorting to violence. At one point, their leader actually ran for a political office. However, “Sampat Pal Devi, India’s real-life feminist activist known for her hot pink saris, unsuccessfully sued to prevent the Mar. 7 release of Gulaab Gang (Pink Gang), saying the filmmakers did not get her approval” (The Hollywood Reporter). The actual activist upon which this film supposedly was not based, bust obviously is, actually attempted to sue the film. She was not successful, likely because the film copies the gang, but very few actual events, and tends more towards fiction. If a moviegoer is looking for a more accurate account of this group, the documentary “Gulabi Gang”. But for me, at least, Gulaab Gang was a very interesting introduction to Bollywood film.

 

By: Thomas Park

Sources:

Chopra, Anupama. “Movie Review by Anupama Chopra: Gulaab Gang Is Messy, Illogical.” Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times, 08 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Testing, Lisa. “Gulaab Gang (Pink Gang): Film Review.” The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 3 July 2014. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.