Director Leena Yadav, who has also written the story, has etched these women with great affection and compassion.

A bright jewel of a film, surprisingly funny, fresh and upbeat in the way it takes on the complicated and often dark topic of sexual politics in rural India.

"Parched" is vibrantly alive, full of color and light and movement and music. There is sex in this movie, and there is dancing, and there are vibrant fabrics and foods and fire. It's a dry place, but one ringed with beauty.

In a land so vast and without obstruction, the only echoes you might hear are of your imagination. Your voice on the other hand may never make it across the weather-beaten earth.