Dichotomy of Irony: Pari: Not A Fairytale

Salman Rushdie's Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights told the story of Dunia, a female genie living in Peristan, who falls in love with a human, the historical philosopher Ibn Rushd. Dunia gives birth to a tribe of semi-human, semi-djinns whom she calls Dunyazát. These half-human descendants, who have no ear-lobes, fight a battle with the four dark djinns—the Grand Ifrits Zummurud Shah, Zabardast, Shining Ruby, and Ra’im Blood-Drinker—who wreak havoc and unleash monsters upon the human world in a bid to instill fear into their heart. Prosit Roy's Pari: Not A Fairytale also takes elements from a similar folklore and depicts the story of Rukhsana (Anushka Sharma), a pari who is the daughter of the evil djinn Ifrit. According to legend, Ifrit is the evilest djinn whose purpose was to spread his own bloodline. Due to some turn of events, Rukhsana meets and falls in love with a human Arnab (Parambrata Chatterjee). A professor Qasim Ali (Rajat Kapoor) had eliminated all the offsprings of Ifrit and is looking for the last remaining one, Rukhsana, so that he can kill her.

At an early point in the film, the car that Arnab's father drives has a toy fairy hanging inside it. It is as if it was giving us a hint of the things that are about to hit them. The film's title explicitly mentions that it is about fairies but it is not a fairy tale. Rukhsana is a pari—a fairy—but she is also someone who turns into an evil monster once a month. The film underscores that there is a demon in all of us. Rukhsana's own poison has to be taken out monthly else it will kill her. At the time of the month when Rukhsana becomes a monster, she sees a spirit who is her mirror image. At another early instance, Qasim Ali explains djinns to his grandson. He tells him that the naughty and the evil thoughts that we get are the work of the djinn inside us. The djinn is our inner shaitan—the devil. Towards the end of the film, Arnab leaves Rukhsana in the captivity of Qasim Ali who wants to kill her. While speaking to Piyali, he says that Rukhsana is pregnant with his child and he left her to die. Does that not make him a monster, too? Piyali consoles him by saying, "Rakshasa hum sab ke andar hai." There is a monster in all of us. She remembers the time when she aborted her child, and felt like a monster as well.

Rukhsana might be a monster but she is not dissimilar to the humans. She is shown to be just like Arnab. As a kid, Arnab used to hide under the bed when guests came at his home. He had no friends. He used to speak so little that his mother got worried that he might lose his voice. He used to play with various cartoon characters. He used to like sketching. The same qualities are shown in Rukhsana. She hides under the bed when she feels scared. She has no friends. She was kept isolated from everyone while growing up. She is fascinated by cartoons as well. She also likes to sketch portraits. When Arnab sees Rukhsana's sketches, he remembers his own sketches. If Rukhsana sketches the Ifrit (a ghost), then Arnab also sketches the Phantom (also a ghost). The film focuses on these details and shows us their underlying similarity. At a later point, Arnab leaves Rukhsana at his apartment to die, and goes to his parents' house. He leans down on the floor and turns his body into the fetal position. Immediately in the next scene, Rukhsana is lying in the exact same state. Thus, they are not really different. Perhaps, that is why he was able to form a connection with her. Later, Piyali was about to kill Rukhsana but she stops as she empathizes with Rukhsana, not only because she is a nurse, but also because she remembered the time when she had aborted her own child. She could not make herself do it. One can understand others even better when the person has experienced the similar pain himself. Maybe that was what the film was trying to say. We might box ourselves into separate identities, but we share the same emotions.

The film is set in rainy Kolkata and shows the usual Bengali touches. As we know, every Bengali household is likely to have the signature green-colored tube of Boroline. The same can be seen in Pari. The scenes with Boroline in the film also have a subtext of sexual consent. After Rukhsana runs from her village to Arnab's house in Kolkata, he sees her injured feet and offers to apply Boroline on them. Rukhsana is intimidated by any touch and puts her feet away from him. Seeing her hesitation, Arnab gives the tube to her and tells her to put it on her own. Later, this scene is repeated when Rukhsana cannot find a nail cutter, and she uses the knife to cut her nails, bruising her feet in the process. Arnab, again, observes her feet, and gives her Boroline to apply it on her feet. This time, she puts her feet away initially, then brings them forward, and signals to him that he can apply the ointment on her. This is a depiction of the dynamics of sexual consent in a way. He touches her only if she wants him to do so. Moments later, Rukhsana tells him, "I love you, too." She learned these words when she was watching Waqt: The Race Against Time where Pooja (Priyanka Chopra) proclaims her love to Aditya (Akshay Kumar). The words I love you are significant, but the fourth word too is equally important as it conveys the idea of consent. It is also important to have the consent of both the people engaging in any sexual activity. At a later instance, when Piyali kisses Arnab, he moves away from her. She immediately stops and apologizes to him. Even if they are engaged, she respects his consent.

At some stage in the film, Rukhsana felt immense pain in her body. On seeing her in this state, Arnab worries about her. She tells him that it happens to her once a month. Later, it is shown that Rukhsana turns into a monster every month. In the last scene of the film, when she is dying, she explains about this state and says that she has to take out her poison once a month. Rukhsana's mother used to tie her in chains at that time of the month and kept her away from everyone. Rukhsana tells Arnab that the dogs near her house know everything, yet they do not abandon her at that time when she has to take out the poison. It is a common belief in many cultures that menstruating women are 'unclean' and must be isolated from others. After all these scenes, it seemed that, perhaps, this zeher was only an allegory for menstruation and the menstrual taboo.

Although Pari is marketed as a horror film, it is, essentially, a love story with some supernatural elements. Some of the scenes are uncomfortable to watch. I was aghast at the scene where the men in the morgue extract a tooth from the dead bodies and put in their mouths to chew the leftover food. My favorite scene in the film was the one when Rukshana and Arnab make love in the shadows. It is a lovely scene.

All the three films produced by Anushka Sharma till now have been set in different geographical regions. The common theme in the films has been the presence of interesting women characters. In NH-10, Meera single-handedly takes revenge for the death of her husband from a bunch of men in the badlands of Haryana. In Phillauri, Shashi feels no hesitation in having premarital sex in a conservative time and in an equally conservative place, while the contemporary youth in the film were hesitant to talk about sex. In Pari, Rukhsana is a fairy and a monster. She falls in love with a man, and it was that very love that makes her baby human. She is able to overcome Ifrit's hatred and her desire to bite the person she loves. Love can conquer it all. It will be exciting to see what Anushka Sharma does next. I know I will be waiting.

Trivia:

The cartoon show that Rukhsana watches is the episode Wolf! Wolf! of the cartoon show Mighty Mouse. In the particular episode, a little lamb is captured by a pack of wolves, and Mighty Mouse rescues and brings her back to her mother. Was it a statement that Rukhsana is some kind of a lamb as well?