Daily Recco, April 20: Geeli Pucchi is a story of revenge served cold
At the end, you may feel bad for both women who play the lead, or you may feel one got what she deserved. A lot of what you feel will depend on where you come from.
You may have heard of revenge served cold but if you want to learn how to serve it, watch Geeli Pucchi (Sloppy Kisses), Neeraj Ghaywan’s short in Ajeeb Daastaans, which is a collection of four short stories. The other three - Shashank Khaitan’s Majnu, Raj Mehta’s Khilauna and Kayoze Irani’s Ankahi - are OTT’s regular daal-chawal, but Geeli Pucchi is biryani cooked on low flame with the right spices.
Aditi Rao Hydari (Priya) and Konkona Sensharma (Bharti) work in a factory. While Priya represents the good girl, who sucks the lights out of you by playing (not being) good all the time, Bharti battles caste and gender discrimination. Her below average looks by traditional standards ensure she can’t climb the ladder. Priya has it easy because she is upper caste and beautiful. The boss turning himself into a godfather would do everything for Priya which he denies Bharti.
Bharti is unsettled but warms up to Priya because Priya is persistent. Added to Priya's efforts to win over Bharti are geeli pucchis.
Priya and Bharti could be gay or bisexual, the story doesn’t make it clear. But the two are clearly attracted to each other. The story, however, is not about their sexual orientation. The story is about normal humans in normal situations. It is a story of the abnormal things we as humans do to each other in our fight for survival.
Bharti is battling the demons of her past and Priya is trying hard to play the perfect wife and perfect bahu. They find comfort in each other’s company but Priya seems to want to have it easy both ways.
Mostly in love, we allow ourselves to be used as a doormat. Priya wants the comfort of being a ‘social fit’ and the excitement of a romantic dalliance with Bharti. Both try to manipulate each other - one out of need; the other as revenge.
Aditi Rao Hydari and Konkona Sensharma bring out the conflicts of the characters they play on screen beautifully. Neeraj Ghaywan builds real characters in very real life situations. At the end, you may feel bad for both women, or you may feel one got what she deserved. A lot of what you feel about the two will depend on where you come from.
Watch Geeli Pucchi, the third of four stories in Ajeeb Daastaans, currently streaming on Netflix. The rest we leave to your discretion.