'Pink' trailer arrests with compelling performances

Mumbai: There is an element of enticing immediacy and topicality that the people and situations in the trailer of director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's "Pink" exude, that leaves us spellbound.

It opens with Amitabh Bachchan playing a lawyer asking the very beautiful Taapsee Pannu if she is a virgin. This is the courtroom of rape-shaming lawyers who ask women questions even brothels don't allow.

The trailer cuts deep. It is a wounding experience.

As we watch Taapsee and her friends (played by the eminently watchable Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang) being brutalised physically and verbally by a system of governance that sanctions shaming women who are non-conformist and unorthodox, we begin to realise there is much more to the simple case of a rich man's wayward son (Angad Bedi) trying to wriggle out of a molestation mess.

"Pink" seems to be -- from its trailer -- a powerful piece of work, dominated by compelling performances. I've always felt Taapsee was misused by Bollywood. This is a new beginning for Taapsee.

The rest of the cast, including the redoubtable Dhritiman Chatterjee as the judge who is at the end of his tether, performs within the brief spell of expression with a passion that peaks our appetite for the film.

And yes, there is the indefatigable Amitabh Bachchan spewing courtroom insults at Taapsee and stalking her with his face covered in a mask. Whose side is he on?

"You are a woman of questionable character," spews Big B to Taapsee who is not intimidated by his presence.

The beauty of "Pink" is that it refuses to abide by the stereotypes of feminist filmmaking. It won't tick off all the boxes about cinema on sexual empowerment. It would rather create a whole new stimulating language on the complex relationship between a woman's right over her body and the many devious and disgusting ways in which men violate that right.

This is probably going to be one of those films like Rajkumar Gupta's "No One Killed Jessica" that men and women will discuss for a very long time.