Film Festival Film #8: Pink Saris

[bcholmes]

Pink Saris is a documentary about a woman of strong personality in India. Sampat Pal is a middle-aged woman who is the leader of a group of women called the Gulabi Gang (or the "Pink Gang") -- not a gang of thugs, but a collective of women who intervene in a variety of domestic cases, usually involving young women from the dalit ("untouchable") caste. Sampat, as I said, is a very strong personality and the group, in many ways, operates like a cult of personality. Through the course of the film, we see the kind of work that she does. Often, people come to her because they are young wives (twelve to fourteen) in difficult situations. One young woman has become pregnant by a boy from a higher caste, and the boy's family doesn't want him to marry a dalit. Another woman is being treated badly by the family of inlaws that she's living with. Another is a 14-year-old young woman, already married, but who is now in love with a young man.

The film follows these cases -- each somewhat unsettling. Sampat is a force of nature, who often uses the process of bringing the truth out into the open as a mechanism to trying to create a bit of safety for the women she's helping. She gets all the neighbours of a particular family, and holds a bit of a forum. Different people speak out, removing some of the secrecy of what's happening. To some extent, we can see how Sampat is making something of a difference in these women's lives.

But it also becomes clear in the film that Sampat, herself, is a very flawed person. At times, she seems to be chasing publicity. To some extent, that's understandable. Her renown affects her ability to have influence in some of these cases. But it gets a bit icky. Sometimes she seems to make bad choices. She's a damaged person who doesn't really feel loved, but she's trying to show these abused young women that they're worthy of love. She doesn't always get it right.

It was interesting, also, to see how often issues of caste factor in to these stories. The 14-year-old wife gets a divorce from her husband to pursue her love, Gudda. But Gudda's family doesn't want him to get involved with her because she's untouchable and will "stain" the family, making Gudda's sister unmarriageable.

I've met a lot of flawed personalities in Haiti work, and sometimes it's hard to talk about how such complicated people can be doing really good and important work. I liked that the film didn't shy away from showing Sampat's flaws, but because it does reveal those flaws, I feel like it's hard to talk about the good that she does.