Made For Festival Ovations
1.5 stars
Mini Review:
This film has many 'puke into popcorn' moments that disturb you. But when you step back, you realise it's laying it on too thick. And the pace of the film is so slow you can see 'atyachaar' come from a mile away.
Main Review:
So Chauranga arrives on the screen with many 'festival' awards. And you know why. The story of a Dalit woman and her two kids in a village is practically tailor made for the festival circuit. Festivals love films that are 'Bold, stark, accurate portrayal of the poverty and atrocities experienced by the Dalits'. Chauranga fits the bill.
A Dalit and her two kids live at the mercy of the village Zamindar. The Zamindar seems to be kind to the untouchables of the village but you soon know why. The dalit woman's children are really his.
The children don't know who the father is, but seem to be content being with their mother and are constantly bullied and beaten by the lanky but upper caste goons of the Zamindaars. The older kid takes a beating quietly, but the younger one has fire in his eyes.
The village goons attempt to molest the dalit woman. The creepy blind priest molests his goat, beats up the dalit woman's pig, feels up the zamindar's daughter and then rapes the zamindar's wife in the name of religion.
There! All boxes checked for horrors in the village for the festival circuit audience to gasp in shock.
Oh yes, there's the incident of another dalit boy being pushed into the well by the goons. Also no explanation why blood comes out of the newly installed hand pump...
(My bad! I was told that it wasn't blood, but that the color of the earth in those parts is red! adding this correction on the 5th of February, 2016)
There is a snake lurking in the grass and you'd think random shots of the snake would be considered artistic but no, the snake has a role to play too.
Almost forgot, there is a Star Wars like incest theme there because the younger of the dalit woman's son is slowly falling in love with the zamindar's daughter...
The caffeine in your coffee cup is working no more and you see the older boy get crushed by a stone to his head and you hope there is no sequel to such movies where there is no room for hope at all...
The little boy manages to escape the village of horrors and soon we escape the theater too...
p.s. 'Chauranga' comes from the four colored pen the older dalit boy owns...
1.5 stars
Mini Review:
This film has many 'puke into popcorn' moments that disturb you. But when you step back, you realise it's laying it on too thick. And the pace of the film is so slow you can see 'atyachaar' come from a mile away.
Main Review:
So Chauranga arrives on the screen with many 'festival' awards. And you know why. The story of a Dalit woman and her two kids in a village is practically tailor made for the festival circuit. Festivals love films that are 'Bold, stark, accurate portrayal of the poverty and atrocities experienced by the Dalits'. Chauranga fits the bill.
A Dalit and her two kids live at the mercy of the village Zamindar. The Zamindar seems to be kind to the untouchables of the village but you soon know why. The dalit woman's children are really his.
The children don't know who the father is, but seem to be content being with their mother and are constantly bullied and beaten by the lanky but upper caste goons of the Zamindaars. The older kid takes a beating quietly, but the younger one has fire in his eyes.
The village goons attempt to molest the dalit woman. The creepy blind priest molests his goat, beats up the dalit woman's pig, feels up the zamindar's daughter and then rapes the zamindar's wife in the name of religion.
There! All boxes checked for horrors in the village for the festival circuit audience to gasp in shock.
Oh yes, there's the incident of another dalit boy being pushed into the well by the goons. Also no explanation why blood comes out of the newly installed hand pump...
(My bad! I was told that it wasn't blood, but that the color of the earth in those parts is red! adding this correction on the 5th of February, 2016)
There is a snake lurking in the grass and you'd think random shots of the snake would be considered artistic but no, the snake has a role to play too.
Almost forgot, there is a Star Wars like incest theme there because the younger of the dalit woman's son is slowly falling in love with the zamindar's daughter...
The caffeine in your coffee cup is working no more and you see the older boy get crushed by a stone to his head and you hope there is no sequel to such movies where there is no room for hope at all...
The little boy manages to escape the village of horrors and soon we escape the theater too...
p.s. 'Chauranga' comes from the four colored pen the older dalit boy owns...
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