THINK BACK TO Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Pink (2016). It's a fine example of igniting a women's revolution of sorts. The subject of female choice and her right to say 'no' to male provocation lay at the heart of Pink. Yet, the female bonding of Pink is distinct from what's seen in Veere Di Wedding. Though both films are set in Delhi, the world of Pink would be likely more relatable to the numerous young small-town middle-class girls who share not just an apartment but also life in the big city. (Set in Bombay, Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3 evoked a similar feel. The working girls share an intimate bond as roomies. The Lata Mangeshkar number Kitne Ajeeb Rishtey encapsulates that bonding.) Veere Di Wedding's posh South Delhi girls inhabit a make-believe world of luxury products, while Pink's Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang, as working women, might merely aspire to these trappings of the high life. The degrees of separation is more than sevenfold. The bonding among Pink's protagonists is based less on the idea of mutual fun and excess than mutual survival and closing ranks in the face of an ominous threat. Before the film gets down to its investigative thriller mode, there's a moment when Minal Arora (Taapsee Pannu) tries to lighten the mood after an alarming few days. She reminds her roommates that they haven't even smiled in days. "Toh hanso (then laugh)," advises Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari), and the three break into unguarded mirth. Evidently, the laughter would be short-lived. But this scene ties in perfectly with Aparna Sen's Sonata (2017); only the characters are older. Still, they are happily single and probably more footloose and fancy-free than Pink's far younger girls. Azmi's Dolon Sen spends much of the film blotto, dangling a glass of wine even as the 'prude' Aruna Chaturvedi (Aparna Sen) exudes a more guarded presence. (Call it an astute case of counter thinking, role reversal or an inside joke at the swapping of regional identities, Mijwan's Azmi gets to play a Bengali to the Calcutta-born Sen's UP Brahmin.) But close friend Subhadra's (Lillete Dubey) arrival helps loosen their inner demons, supplying the womenfolk unending moments of laughter.

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