In a drought-struck 1975 village in the Rann of Kutch, women are forbidden from playing garba. When they secretly begin to dance to a wandering drummer's dhol, the stolen dance becomes an act of freedom that the village cannot contain.
Some films entertain you. A rare few reset what you thought an industry could do. Hellaro is the second kind. Before it, no Gujarati film had won the National Award for Best Feature Film. After it, that ceiling was simply gone.
Abhishek Shah's debut is deceptively small in shape. A drought-struck 1975 village in the Rann of Kutch, women forbidden from playing garba, a collapsed drummer they secretly revive, and a stolen dance that becomes an act of freedom. The power comes from restraint. Shraddha Dangar gives Manjhri a stubborn, quiet dignity, Jayesh More says little as the drummer and shifts everything, and the ensemble is drawn with enough care that the jury handed all thirteen women a Special Jury Award. That reading was correct.
The marrow of the film is its music. Mehul Surti's compositions and Saumya Joshi's words do not decorate the story, they carry it, turning garba into a language of rebellion. Tribhuvan Babu Sadineni frames the Kutch horizon as both cage and promise. Critics were near unanimous, from the Times of India at four out of five to Mumbai Live and Mashable at four and a half. The sharpest criticism, from Kutch voices, was about historical accuracy and the absence of Kutchi language, which tells you how seriously it was taken.
Verdict
A landmark that earns the word. It hands the microphone to the women usually kept at the edge of the frame, backs them with the best Gujarati score in years, and still moves like a story rather than a lecture.
What works
- Original true-story spine with no melodrama
- An ensemble where every woman registers
- Mehul Surti's score as the beating heart
- Landscape used as both cage and horizon
What holds it back
- Questions over historical accuracy of the ban
- No Kutchi language in a Kutch-set film
- A legal complaint over one dialogue term
- A deliberate, unhurried pace
Cast & crew
Writers: Abhishek Shah, Prateek Gupta, Saumya Joshi (dialogues and lyrics)
Music: Mehul Surti
Cast: Shraddha Dangar (Manjhri), Jayesh More (Mulji), Tejal Panchasara (Gomti), Niilam Paanchal (Leela), Kaushambi Bhatt (Champa), Brinda Trivedi (Kesar)
Producers: Saarthi Productions & Harfanmaula Films
Watch the trailer
Play the official trailer on YouTubeMore from Abhishek Shah
More Period Gujarati films
Frequently asked
Is Hellaro worth watching?
A landmark that earns the word. It hands the microphone to the women usually kept at the edge of the frame, backs them with the best Gujarati score in years, and still moves like a story rather than a lecture. Kevu Che rates it 4.5 out of 5.
What is Hellaro about?
In a drought-struck 1975 village in the Rann of Kutch, women are forbidden from playing garba. When they secretly begin to dance to a wandering drummer's dhol, the stolen dance becomes an act of freedom that the village cannot contain.
What is the IMDb rating of Hellaro?
Hellaro (2019) holds an IMDb rating of 8.6 out of 10.