Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time: No.81 - "Gulaab Gang", Pink Vigilantes Fight For Women's Rights

Nagini Shree |Jun 29, 2019

Gulabi Gang brought about a revolution despite the male dominant society and inspired the making of the film Gulaab Gang which on the Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time.

Directed by Soumik Sen and produced by Anubhav Sinha, Gulaab Gang was based on Gulabi gang, a group of Indian women vigilantes and activists dressed in pink saris, fighting against the social injustice and operating in Bundelkhand region.

Main roles in the movie were played by Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla and the movie was seen as the comeback capturing movie for both of these actresses from the 90s.

Gulaab Gang

Fearless Rajjo (Dixit) is the avenging angel who channels her inner Durga and even gets to wield an axe. She runs a school for little girls that alternates as a shelter for abandoned and battered women. The village set-up has women being beaten up by their husband, in-laws craving for dowry and women being tortured. These ladies accessorize their pink with oxidized silver, and they are led to stand up against villainous husbands, cops and politicians.

Madhuri Dixit

Meanwhile, a larger-than-life villain Sumitra Devi (Chawla) is the sort of politician that men have played as always: hungry for power, will stop at nothing, not even murder, and mayhem.

However, Gulaab Gang release was postponed by the Delhi High Court on the petition filed by Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Lal. The activist, who formally set up her group with dozens of supporters in 2006, claimed the movie Gulaab Gang has wrongly portrayed her and damaged her reputation.

Though having been under the radar and involved controversies ever since the trailer of the film released, the film made it to No.81 in Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time and it was the first film that Bollywood has finally made a space for women. Here are some facts very few people know about the real-life inspired Gulabi Gang.

Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time - Gulaab Gang: Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Pal

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Sampat Pal

Sampat Pal is chief of the Gulabi Gang active in the impoverished Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Pal was a victim of child marriage when marring at the age of 12 to a resident of Banda district. At age 16, she opposed a neighbor beating up his wife regularly and decided to show him his place when he threatened her for pleading his wife.

Pal once made her appearance on a popular television reality show in 2012 where she was seen clad mostly in pink sarees.

Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time - Gulaab Gang: Pink

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Pal chose the color pink as their symbol because it was free of any religious or political intentions. The women clad in pink saris specialized in lathi and used it as a medium to defend themselves and fight against a crime they witnessed. The group's name literally translated means the Pink Gang.

Top 100 Bollywood Movies Of All Time - Gulaab Gang: The Making of the Gang

Gulabi Gang

On witnessing a woman being nurtured mentally and physically by her husband, Sampat decided to raise her voice, however, the authority was ignorant her revolt. Therefore, she gathered a group of women to teach the man a lesson and thus began the revolutionary journey of the Gulabi Gang. She has changed the lives of so many rural women in India.

She has represented the women of India who refuse to bear torture and make their own destiny. Gulabi Gang brought happiness and strength in the lives of thousands of women.

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