''Pakhi'' (translation: bird) is a 2018 Indian crime drama directed and produced by the award-winning playwright and theatre director

Sachin Gupta Sachin Gupta (born 9 March 1978) is an Indian film producer, writer and director. He produces films under Chilsag Motion Pictures and is also an artistic director of Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company. He made his writing and directorial debut w ...

under

Chilsag Entertainment Network Chilsag Entertainment Network is an Indian film and theatre company based in Mumbai. Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company is the live show and musical production arm of the Chilsag Entertainment Network. The enterprise was founded in 2003 by Sachin ...

in association with London Players. It is produced by Sachin Gupta, Sushma Gupta and Rashmi Bansal. The film stars Sumeet Kaul, Anamika Shukla, Anmol Goswami and Pihu Datta in the lead roles. The film is based on a true story of a 10 year old girl with focuses on child trafficking, flesh trade, child marriage, and rape.

Plot

The narrative begins with Suhani; a young girl conned into the flesh trade operated by a goon called Bali. Circumstances make the brutal Bali believe that Suhani brings him luck, so he gives her royal treatment compared to the other girls in his faction. Several months later, Pihu, her brother Maulik, and her elder sister are sold to Bali by their uncle. While the elder sister escapes the trauma by killing herself, Pihu catches the eye of a Hyderabad businessman who is keen to marry her. Later, Suhani helps Pihu and her brother escape from Bali's clutches, which forms the crux of the tale. Run time is 100 minutes.

Cast

* Sumeet Kant Kaul as ''Bali'' * Anamika Shukla as ''Pakhi'' * Anmol Goswami as ''Maulik'' * Sikandar Khan * Tanmanya Bali * Vijyant Kohli * Komal Khanna * Gital Patel

Music

The music for the film was composed by Shivang Mathur. The background score was composed by Nikhil Koparde. The lyrics were written by Shayra Apoorva.

Track listing

Censorship

The movie faced hard criticism from the

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

for their item song. The movie was considered too dark and serious as it tackled the concept of sex trafficking. The film received an 'A' certificate from the

because it was said to be very intense. They were also asked to remove the item song, 'Khabare hot', to replace the word 'Kali' wherever 'Kali Puja' is used and to replace 'Ministerji' with 'Netaji' The director started a movement with the hashtag #JusticeforPakhi to get the movie approved by CBFC without any cuts. The movie was supposed to release on 10 August 2018 but was finally released in September 2018 after all the necessary cuts were made.

References

{{reflist __FORCETOC__ Indian crime drama films 2018 films Works about sex trafficking Films about prostitution in India