It took me years to get my hands on this film's original 80-minute director's cut. As far as I'm aware, the director's cut was always available on YT until it was eventually removed. The one officially available on YT now is a watered-down PG-13 cut (or U/A by India's standards).
However, the heavily (and sometimes awkwardly) censored version does not hide the fact that the film tends to break its own rules. From what I've gathered from the available sources from India at that time - the director boastfully asserted the film to be a "film about female empowerment". While it is definitely commendable, from halfway into the film you'll begin to realize that that was never the case. I'd like to call the film a wolf in sheep's clothing, as it is, in reality, nothing but a feast for the male eyes and a constant mockery (or exploitation) of the very concept of female empowerment - all done in poor taste.
If you somehow come across the director's cut, you'll understand what I'm saying. The one officially uploaded to YouTube, well, tries its best to convince you otherwise.
There are unnecessary scenes of prostitutes cutting sex jokes, unnecessary intimate scenes with unnecessary loud percussion music (a definite attempt to titillate those male eyes) - not to mention a completely unexpected scene of the lead female character checking herself out on the mirror as the camera pans around her body voyeuristically that lasts for over a minute - a scene that serves no purpose in the film afterward.
Oh and did I even mention that infamous two-minute-long sex scene that too came out of nowhere, and made rounds on every single Indian po**sites back in the day?
Yeah, this film is about anything but female empowerment. There's not even a hint about any of that. Some random scenes of the husband being a complete douche toward the wife don't always equate to a message against toxic masculinity, because the film itself behind the scenes glorifies that same masculinity by having you get aroused by those gratuitous scenes and having you think that "sex" is the only cure to toxic masculinity.
Can't you guys see how frickin' wrong is this? I'm surprised this film didn't turn any heads back in the day - maybe because the Bollywood market was already full to the brim with other contemporary blockbusters that shoved this "gem" of a film to total obscurity. And for good reason, mind you.
