Mirroring the crudity that has entered in India's most popular folk operatic theater performance called Nautanki - the biggest entertainment medium in the villages and towns of northern India at one time, some may relate it to those sleazy item songs of Bollywood and the plight of women in India. ANAARKALI OF AARAH is a full loaded crackling ode to women power that echoes with a chorus featuring Swara Bhaskar in a power packed, terrific and flawless act as 'Anar' - the erotic singing queen of Bihar's small town Aarah.

Here's my genuine worry with 'abla nari' narratives (female-in-jeopardy films). They can get hard to consume as fictional entertainment. Some of them can be so solely well-meaning that they could potentially bore you. Many others are so hyperbolic that they seem exploitative, under the garb of good intentions, of course. Either way, they repeatedly hit home a point that you've known all along anyway.

A seductive orchestra singer collides with an army of men notorious for abuse of authority and public lewdness in a small town of Bihar, Arrah, where pants slip all the way down to the ankles just at the accidental sight of a woman's cleavage. What happens when a sexually-liberated woman finds herself trapped in a land that's dripped in lawlessness and misogyny of extreme kind is what this film faintly aims at capturing.

Anaarkali (Swara Bhasker) is an erotic singer from Aarah, a small town in Bihar. She and her orchestra perform at parties on songs which are replete with double meaning. Their actions and dance too high on sexual innuendos. Considered to be a local treasure, Anarkali is nearly a celebrity thanks to her popular performances. She is successfully making her business through these performances, until one unfortunate day when she gets molested by a powerful, lecherous VC (Sanjay Mishra) of town on stage during her performance.

Oh, I so wish I could seeti bhajao. Not the lascivious kind. But the kind you hear when something good happens, when something applaud-worthy happens and you want to season that applause with a few good seetis. For this film, this Anaarkali Of Aarah, is a little gem that shines brightly. It is a story of Anaarkali (Swara Bhaskar), who earns a living, singing songs that are bawdy, yet foot-tappingly catchy.

A tawdrily attired Anaarkali shimmies into a shop. She asks for a pink lipstick. The shopkeeper fishes out a bunch of colours and offers them to her, all for free. This man, like every other male in the boondocks of Aarah, is a big fan of the street singer-dancer known for her racy, uninhibited numbers. Anaarakali, as the troupe's compere hollers at the start of every performance, is "hamari desi tandoor, Angrezi mein oven". But in the glare of the bright spotlight, life isn't a joyride for the protagonist of Anaarkali of Aarah, a film with a promising premise that doesn't unfortunately yield the expected cinematic riches.

Does a woman who sings and dances with abandon, whose songs use double-meaning lyrics, and who is visibly a free spirit, automatically become available to a man who pegs himself higher in the social-economic pecking order? Anaarkali of Aarah says it like it should have been, with a resounding 'No'. And I say an equally resounding 'yes' to this film, helmed by a bunch of excellent actors, and a debutant director with a staunch true voice.

Hailing from Arah in Bihar, Anarkali (Swara Bhaskar) is an item girl, famous for her vocals, suggestive dance moves and innuendo laden lyrics. She enjoys her stardom and revels in the lusty glances. The singer acknowledges that she is no saint and even makes peace with the hatred she evokes among civilised society but what she refuses to tolerate is being exploited in public by an influential politician (Sanjay Mishra).

Thanks to its crew's fight with the Censor Board Of Film Certification, Anaarkali Of Aarah didn't remain as low-key as it would have been otherwise. Now that it has crossed all the hurdles and is ready to impress the audience with its David versus Goliath approach, it may not appear to be a very polished product or a free flowing story to some, but it punches with all its might in the climax, and that's where you suddenly realise its worth.