Starring : Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Angad Bedi , Piyush Mishra, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Raashul Tandon and Tushar Pandey
Producer :  Rashmi Sharma, Shoojit sarkar

Director : Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury

Music :  Shantanu Moitra , Anupam roy, Faiza mujahid

Review by : Kriti Agarwal

Rating :  4 out of 5

What's about :   A powerful, brave film which focuses on young women who deal with thorny day-to-day issues.
En O, means `nahin’, nada, don’t want. It means go away, don’t bother me. The young woman can wear short skirts  or jeans or Tees. She can be present at rock concerts. She can laugh and reach out to a young man in a friendly fashion. She can have a drink or two in his company. She can even be, shudder, sexually experienced.
 
Hearing the phrase ‘are you a virgin’ in a Bollywood film in a meaningful, non-smirky manner? Fantastic. Underlining a woman’s freedom to own her sexuality? Priceless.
    
When she says No grabbing. No forcing. Take that groping hand and mouth away.
The court-room sequence, is inspired by Jonathan Kaplan's The Accused (1988), where the accused Minal is asked scathing questions on her virginity and drinking habits lays bare the double standards of the society.
Pink makes the horror of daily trauma , so real that your skin crawls.

It's the detailing - the prying neighbours, the sniggering co-workers, the indifferent cops.
Pink works because this isn't a laboured lecture on women's rights.  

Location : New Delhi

Story :   The three female protagonists are your regular young women. Minal (Taapsee Pannu) is an events manager, whose work can extend into the late hours. Falak (Kirti Kulhari) works in a corporate set-up where image is all. Andrea (Tariang) is from the ‘North-East’  (Meghalaya `North East’). The girls share a flat in a ‘posh’ South Delhi locality.
The trio was in the company of three young men, after a rock concert in Surajkund in Haryana. Things take an ugly turn after the dinner. The women have to make  a run for it, and one of the young men ends up needing stitches in a deep bloody gash above his eye.
 The injured Rajveer (Angad Bedi) and his friends, Dumpy (Raashul Tandon), Vishwa (Tushar Pandey) and another fellow (Vijay Varma) who wasn’t there but is happy to engineer and participate in the  humiliation of the women, will try and turn the tables: instead of being the victims, they will be painted as the aggressors.
How do you silence a courageous young woman who has the temerity to ask questions? You label her cheap, slut, whore: the film mutes  the word ‘rxxx’, but the girls have to hear it.

You can see it in the  body language of the female cop who helps nail the wrong person for the crime : ‘aisi ladkiyon ke saath toh, aisa hi hota hai’.
Viewers feel the chill when the girls are harassed in the most shocking manner.The courtroom scenes are explosive and novel not just in execution but writing as well.

Characters :  Every single actor has upped the ante with award winning performances ,  in this 136-minute riveting drama.

Amitabh Bachchan [ Deepak Sehgal ] : He lights up the screen with a couple of superb moments. He imbuses character with tragic majesty & towers in every sense.  
Taapsee Pannu [ Minal Arora] : excels in initial courtroom scenes,
Kirti Kulhari [ Falak Ali ] : takes it to a whole new level in the finale.  A powerhouse performer and she sparkles in each and every scene. She hits the bulls eye in her scene with the defence lawyer.
Andrea Tariang [ Andrea ] :  looks lovely & impresses. The scene where she is asked about North Eastern roots is damn good.
Angad Bedi [Rajveer Singh ]: Bedi exudes menace when he snarls out that awful expletive during the trial.  He impresses, when he gets a phone call but he tells his friend to take it.
Raashul Tandon [Dumpy a.k.a. Raunak Anand] : very good performance
Tushar Pandey [ Vishwa a.k.a Vishwajyoti Ghosh] : Good
Mamta malik [ Haryanvi cop Sarla Premchand] : just superb.
Dhritiman Chatterjee [ Judge ] : underplays his part very nicely.
Piyush mehra [ Prashant] : a shrewd lawyer Prashant, played by a super intense Piyush Mishra. He takes away some of the sobriety in the court scenes by his unsubtle notes,
Vijay Verma [ Ankit Malhotra] : He has shown a lot of promise in a cameo. He takes the film to another level with few sequences in the first half.

Pros : sets are quite realistic. cinematography is impactful, especially in the courtroom scenes. Story is interesting. dialogues are sharp ,screenplay is very effective. direction is gritty and engaging.

Cons : The film drags at places . Some answers are left unanswered. How come Deepak was able to give such an impressive performance in the court the second time? Also, his medical condition wasn’t properly put forward. Even his way of reacting in the finale is a bit bewildering.  


Some of the best scenes:  

    The opening scene

    The landlord visits the girls
    The landlord gets threatened on the streets
    Falak blasts Rajveer on the phone
    Minal gets arrested
    The intermission point
    Deepak questions Andrea
    Deepak questions the lady cop(outstanding)
    Deepak questions Minal and his monologue
    Defence lawyer questions Falak
    The climax


TRIVIA
1. The film was earlier titled 'Eve.'

2. Amitabh Bachchan agreed to be a part of the film within five minutes of hearing the script.

3. During the shoot, Amitabh Bachchan wandered the streets of New Delhi while wearing a costume and went unrecognised.

4. Taapsee Pannu often broke down on the sets because of the intensity in her character.

5. Taapsee suffered from viral infection during the court scenes and wanted to dub later. However, Shoojit felt that her illness would add more authenticity to the scenes and urged her to dub in that condition only.


Music : music is okay. Only one song features in the film – Kaari Kaari – and its well-placed. background score is restrained and subtle.

Bottom  line :  Pink is one of the landmark film. It talks about a very important issue but it never gets preachy. Storyline is very novel and engaging and the direction, though unconventional, will be loved.
Definitely a film you must not miss!  I walked out of Pink shaken to the core. This is your story. Our story.
Colour Me Pink India!