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AANCH (2003) - CLOSE TO COUNTRY SIDE

Aanch (2003) is the story of two lovers caught between fake egos and cultural rules of villages. It is an unusual story and perhaps based on a true incident. The story takes place in two of the UP villages. A boy (played by Suchindra Bali-son of veteran actress Vaijayanti Mala) and a girl (played by Sharbani Mukerjee- who played Suniel shetty’s wife in Border) are engaged and their marriage is arranged. Suchindra is from the village where Paresh Rawal is leader while Nana Patekar is leader of Sharbani’s village. At wedding night people of both villages fight because of a past dispute. Some are killed and just married couple is forcefully separated. The interesting note is that both bride and groom have not seen each other’s face as it is usually happens in indian villages. Separately Suchindra and Sharbani go to city for study without knowing each other. There Suchindra falls in love with Sharbani without knowing her. But sharbani refuses and comes back to her village. In his village, Suchindra knows that Sharbani is his legally wedded wife. So he decides to take her back and then the real fight starts. Leaders of both villages refuse that and in these consequences lots of people are killed, injured and dispute between two villages goes to higher side. Will two lovers live with each other while the society is against them? For answer you should see Aanch.

Lots of violence, guns, and killings are shown in the film. But it is justified. They are not included just for attraction or style. The characters are more like true north-east indian villagers. They are blindly following their leaders without thinking what is right or wrong. The leaders have their own egos and selfish purposes. The life of two lovers becomes hell in this web of fake rules. The film is very close to Indian rural culture as it truly shows the villages, houses, costumes, mannerisms and dialogues. Aanch also describes the state of rural youth who want to break old fake rules and venture into new world.

Performance wise all of the actors have done their job well. Thanks to not having so called big stars so that all the actors look like true villagers. Most of the moments in the film make you interested due to innovative story, tight screenplay (Kamal Pande) and Rajesh Singh’s appropriate direction. The story is straight line and does not fall into unnecessary side tracks and songs. Though there are some stratched scenes like Nana, Ayesha Jhulka and Nirmal Pande-Poonam Jhawar’s bedroom scenes and technically the film looks like B grade or Bhojpuri film…but according to me it is more entertaining and thought provoking than any other current films. It is not a great film but it has something different. So if you feel yourself bored by watching metro city dramas, and want to visit Indian country side… perhaps Aanch is suitable film for you.

-Shailesh Limbachiya

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