Movie Theraphy
Matubhoomi: Nation Without Women
Very seldom I watch Hindi movies but when I feel I got a good movie i will surely buy the CD. I liked the movie "Raincoat" though I have to test the patience of my friend to interpret each line because I can't comprehend the language. This movie however (Matrubhoomi) doesn't need much interpretation. This is a film by by Manish Jha. The movie I should say was one of the most powerful movies I've seen in Indian cinema. Forget about Bollywood's "dancing and prancing in the hills" type which is an insult to the senses, this movie is exceptionally powerful one. The movie starts somewhere in rural India (as my mind wanders, in Bihar) which brings the issue of female infanticide. A very poignant topic but the director skillfully unraveled the story with the tremendous nerve to tell a story such as this. The movie started with a brutal scene wherein a father is holding his new born baby girl and slowly submerged her in a drum of milk drowning and killing the innocent baby. That is just the start. A wealthy landlord is so desperate to get his five sons married but there is no more woman in the village so he ask the local priest to search on the other side of the river. There he finds Kalki. The landlord paid her father a hefty amount for it with the intention that all 5 of his sons will sleep with her (one son per day) and him on the remaining two days. Wise father indeed. From here the story revolves until there was chaos in the village when a lower caste man raped her repeatedly and also claiming that he's the father of the child.
The cinematography is excellent, the passing of time while she's pregnant is depicted in a very artistic way. It's not always that we see movies depicting real issues such as this one and for me it's a very courageous act for the director and the producer to make a movie as beautiful yet as political as this one. Art imitating life or life imitating art? Anyway, it's a really good movie or else TIME will not recommend it as "one of the top ten movies in the world for the year".