Parched

In the arid landscape of Rajasthan, four women navigate their way through personal and cultural difficulties. The village is plagued by social evils, age-old traditions and practices of patriarchy, child marriage, dowry, marital rapes and physical and mental abuse. Rani, a widow struggling to support her old mother-in-law and teenage son, Gulab, marries him off to a child bride; Lajjo, a close friend of Rani's, is in an abusive marriage with an alcoholic husband who mocks her for being infertile; Janki, the child bride, hopes to stop her marriage by chopping off her hair; and Bijli, an erotic dancer, acts as an advisor to both Rani and Lajjo.