Pink Movie Review                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Amitabh Bachchan, Angad Bedi                                                                                     Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury                                                                                                                                                                                     Rating: 4/5

The starting block of Pink is a rock show on the outskirts of Delhi where Minal Arora (played by Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari) and Andrea Tariang (a character who shares her name with the actress playing her) meet Rajveer Singh (Angad Bedi), Dumpy a.k.a. Raunak Anand (Raashul Tandon) and Vishwajyoti Ghosh a.k.a. Vishwa (Tushar Pandey). Falak already knows Vishwa. They get chatting. The women accept an invitation to drinks and dinner at a nearby resort. Raajveer is rich, highly educated and well connected. He decides to seek vengeance on the girls. A war between the genders starts and the police, society, parents, judiciary and everyone else become a party.

Pretension, ego, sense of male superiority and skewed ideas of perfect womanhood make it complicated, intriguing, disgusting and disturbing. But, we have seen this happening around us in real life.

So, it doesn’t come as a surprise when the police arrest Meenal under Section 307 IPC, attempt to murder. Who cares if she did it in self-defence. Nobody knows what happened that fateful night. Everyone’s assuming. Because the girls went with the boys and they ate and drank together, moral yardsticks have to be set. A woman investigative officer doesn’t help either. After all, she too is a part of this society.

Once a successful lawyer, Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan) had to hang his boots because of a deteriorating mental condition. Sehgal returns to the courtroom for one last time.

This can be surprising for people who want a woman to fight on behalf of others, but then is there really a match for that devastating baritone and intimidating eyes? Bachchan gives it all and drives his points home with such force that you fall in love with him all over again. The master’s complete dominance silences the courtroom and the audience.

If Taapsee excels in initial courtroom scenes, Kirti takes it to a whole new level in the finale. The girls have shown a tremendous range and Pink belongs to them. Nobody has overshadowed them, not even Bachchan or a shrewd lawyer Prashant, played by a super intense Piyush Mishra.

Vijay Verma, who plays Angad Bedi’s friend Ankit in the film, also leaves his mark. He has shown a lot of promise in a cameo.

Pink is a powerful film. Amitabh Bachchan’s enigmatic persona will guide you through the darkness. You will be moved by the trauma and humiliation of Minal, Falak and Andrea who have to justify their life choices, their clothing choices and their tiniest moves before the world.