Hash Tag Films LLP Productions’ Unwoman (A) is the story of a young man in a village, who inadvertently marries a eunuch. Bhanwar (Sarthak Narula), and his paternal uncle, Bhairo (Bhagwan Tiwari), buy a bride for the former from the neighbouring village. To their horror, the bride, Sanwri (Kanak Garg), turns out to be a eunuch in the guise of a woman. To avoid ignominy, they keep the secret about the new bride being a eunuch a secret. Rather than throwing the eunuch out of their lives and home, they allow her to stay in the house. Their objective is to pretend that nothing is amiss. Besides, the eunuch also does all the household chores and looks after the two men.
Slowly but surely, Bhanwar and Sanwri get physically attracted to each other. One day, Bhairo also wants to satisfy his sexual desires with Sanwri. But when Bhanwar gets to know of how his uncle had tried to rape his ‘wife’, he beats him up. The uncle now spews venom and lets the cat out of the bag, informing the entire village that his nephew’s wife was a eunuch. What happens thereafter?
Susheel Sharman and Pallavi Roy have written an unusual story about a man and his eunuch ‘wife’. Although the story is novel, it is meant more for the festival circuit audience rather than the usual audience of commercial cinema. Pallavi Roy’s screenplay is quite engaging even though, it must be added, it is meant for the elite audience only. Also, Roy has remained true to the story and not tried to succumb to the compulsions of commercial cinema. Even the ending is quite unpredictable. Of course, having said that, it must be repeated that the drama would appeal only to a very thin section of the elite audience because of the taboo attached by society to eunuchs. Besides, the drama does get boring at places because it moves on a single track. Pallavi Roy’s dialogues are realistic and sometimes hard-hitting too. But it must be added here that many dialogues are spoken in a dialect of the Rajasthani language, thereby limiting the drama’s appeal.
Bhagwan Tiwari acts brilliantly in the role of Bhairo. Sarthak Narula is natural to the core as Bhanwar. Kanak Garg does a fine job as Sanwri. Karan Maan, Girish Pal Singh, Pramod Deshwal, Vikas Kumar, Parminder Singh Shah and Mamta Vaishnav lend able support. Others are adequate.
Pallavi Roy’s direction is sensitive and realistic. Abhay Rustum Sopori’s music is dull. His background score is alright. Dhanraj Dhadhich’s lyrics are not easy on the lips. Shakil Rehan Khan’s cinematography is nice. Sanjoy Dasgupta’s production designing and Sunil Gautam’s art direction are proper. Editing (Gunjan Goel and Mohd. Firoj Aalam) is quite sharp.
On the whole, Unwoman is a well-made film but its commercial prospects are almost nil.
Released on 5-5-’23 at Inox Malad (daily 1 show) of Bombay thru Jai Viratra Entertainment Ltd. Publicity & opening: weak. …….Also released all over.