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• Trailer, 1 photo(s)

Year of production : 2016

Director(s) : Himanshu GULATI
Writer(s) : Chinmay PUROHIT
Cast : Anangsha BISWAS, Megha CHAKRABORTY, Anil MANGE

Producer(s) : Trilok MALHOTRA (India Stories Media & Entertainment Pvt Ltd), Harish K R (India Stories Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd)

Desert Tears is set in the beautiful desert state of Rajasthan, India. A young and beautiful teenage girl named Gulal, lives in a hamlet outside a village with her mother, Amrat. The community living in the hamlet are those belonging to the lower castes and who have been driven out of the village.
Gulal`s father suffered the same fate as many men in there are – an early death due to heavy alcoholism and petty fights due to joblessness and social repression. This left Amrat alone to raise and provide for her daughter and clear the debts of the family.
The story of Desert Tears is the story of a regressive system where powerful men exploit the women of the lowest castes. A system of sexual exchange – a barter system – is the unwritten tradition of the place. The men of the hamlet spent their time inebriated and when the food and provisions run out, the women are forcibly sent to the market place to sleep with the merchants for goods and supplies. The women are used as currency.
One day Gulal accidentally sees her mother being ravaged by the local merchant as payment for the supplies they purchased. Utterly devastated, she takes upon herself to her mother and herself out of this vicious circle that has trapped all women of their hamlet.
She starts a small pickle business, going to the nearby town to sell them. During these trips, Gulal also gets acquainted with a young bus owner, Mangal, in whose bus they ride to town. Even though Mangal belongs to a higher caste, he is friendly towards Gulal, and goes out of his way to help Gulal when she gets into trouble with local shop owners in the town. Eventually love blossoms between them. Gulal sees Mangal as someone who could holds the key for the freedom that she’s been thirsting for.
Reality does however catch up with Gulal and Amrat.
As a part of development process that India is going through right now, the local authorities announce the building of a new road through their hamlet for which they would need to demolish all homes. Those with official documentation would get new homes from the government. Without any legal paperwork for their home, Gulal reaches out to Mangal for help only to find out that he is much married. But he does offer to help her get official papers. But for this, she has to sleep with the political leader of the area as well as his friends. Gulal finds herself at cross roads that will determine not only her destiny but also of all the unborn girls to come.
Desert tears is the story about strong women, whose indomitable spirit is infused with true grit and resilience, that do not allow their circumstances to dictate them or what they become.