Dhag: The fire all around!

Here is yet another important film in Marathi that deals with a unique subject. The film won several national awards last year, including the best actress award for Usha Jadhav. The film deals with a caste related practice. Here is a family whose family trade is cremating the dead in the village. Ironically, it is in the death of someone that the family must find its living.

 

Director: Shivaji Lotan Patil

Film Clip

The problem becomes acute when in a sudden turn of events, the man in the family dies of snake bite and the young son has problems continuing with this practice. Though the son wants to study and become someone in life as per his father’s wish, he realises how the eventuality has brought in several other problems to the family, including the lustful advances of men towards his mother. It is in this context that the son must make a decision of his life.

The young Hansraj Jagtap as Krishna adds life to a film which in parts turns melodramatic. The suffering that a caste related trade brings to a poor family can be seen and felt through the tender yet mature expressions of this young boy. The blaze (dhag) is not just that which emanates from the pyre, it is there even in his eyes. The film, of course, does not end pessimistically, which is its strength. There is hope even when the fire blazes all around you.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

How Old Are You: Woman in the centre!

Women-centred films are not new in Malayalam. In fact, the new generation Malayalam films have strong women characters and there are several films in this genre that are centred on women. How old are you is yet another significant and praise-worthy addition to them.

Director: Rosshan Andrrews

Film Clip

It is a film about women living their dreams. The message is straight forward: women are not to be confined only to the household, cooking and taking care of children. They can also strive to achieve their dreams, only if they are determined. And, no-one but themselves can be their guiding hand in this pursuit.

Nirupama is just like any other housewife, taking care of the household having internalised that her life is only that. However, things change dramatically for her, when she comes to know that she is derided for her naivety and less than confident attitude to life. Timely comes the help from her classmate, through whose words of support she defies logic to turn out to be a successful entrepreneur, gaining respect from her husband and her little daughter as well.

The film raises several pertinent issues: Why should a woman always sacrifice her dreams for the sake of her family? Why not help her also to go beyond the narrow confines of family and kitchen? We can also have as many women entrepreneurs as men, if not more, provided men do not feel insecure and threatened by them. And finally, when a woman blooms and flourishes in and through her dreams, not just an household but a society she engages with also blossoms, for the nurturing qualities of a woman will always come alive naturally in every decision she takes, and every change she brings in. At least that is the message of the film. Full marks to the director Rosshan Andrrews and the lead character Manju Warrier.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ