Indian film showing the ‘insult’ of the bride in the arranged marriage

It is often said that marriages are done in heaven.

But in India, where most marriages are arranged, the process of match-making can feel like a path through hell for a woman and her family.

This is the basis of Sthal: A match, 2023 Gritti Marathi-Language film which has won many prestigious awards in festivals in India and abroad. It is releasing for the first time in theaters in India on Friday.

In the rural state of rural, the film center around Savita, a young woman is trying for a career in an education and a patriarchal society, and her father Daulatro Vandhare – a poor cotton farmer – attempts to find a good husband for her daughter.

“He wants a good price for his crop and a good match for his daughter,” says director Jayant Digambar Somalkar.

The film is notable for the fact that its lead actress said what the “very derogatory” experience of many young women said that unlike other Indian films about other Indian films.

Stihal has also attracted attention as its entire cast is made up of actors selected from the village for the first time. Nandini Chik, who played Savita’s role, has already won two awards for her brilliant performance.

The film opens with a sequence where Savita is interviewing a possible groom.

With her female relatives and friends, she sees that the young man serves drinking from a tray. They laugh, when he is visually nervous, he does the fambal while questioning.

Whatever came out as a dream, awakened from waste, Savita is said to be ready because a group of men is coming to see her.

In fact, gender roles are completely reversed, and in a two -hour film several times in a scene repeated, insulting Savita comes into a sharp focus.

The future groom and other men of his family are welcomed by Savita’s father and male relatives. The guests are fed tea and snacks and once introduced, Savita is called.

Wearing clothes in a sari, under the eyes, she sits on a wooden stool, which faces her inquiry.

Questions come, thick and sharp. What is your name? Full name? Mother’s clan? Date of birth? Height? Education? Subject? Hobby? Are you ready to work on the farm?

Men step out to discuss a discussion. “She is a little dark. She had makeup on her face, but didn’t you see her elbow? This is her true color,” one says. “He is also small,” he proceeds to add. Others nodded in the agreement.

They leave, tell Daulatro that they will answer in a few days so that they can be pronounced their verdict.

According to her parents, “This is the fourth or fifth time when a person has come to see Savita” – all the earlier meetings have ended in rejection, causing heartbreak and disappointment.

The scene is true. In India, men often have a laundry list of those characteristics in their brides – a look and match -making websites in the marital columns in newspapers. Everyone shows that everyone wants long, fair, beautiful bride.

Savita’s opposition – “I don’t want to marry, I want to finish college first and then want to build a civil service exams and a career” – not taking any weight in my rural community, where the marriage is presented as the only goal for a young woman.

“Marriage is given great importance in our society,” Chik told the BBC. “Parents believe that once the daughter is married, they will be free from their responsibility. This is the time to change that story.”

She says that she found it “very derogatory” that Savita was designed to sit on a stool by all those who discussed her skin color, while there was no discussion about the potential groom.

“I was only acting, but as the film moved forward, I used to travel to Savita and I felt angry on her side. I felt humiliated and humiliated.”

The film also deal with the social evil that is dowry – the bride’s family practice the practice of practicing cash, clothes and jewelery to the groom’s family.

Although it has been illegal for more than 60 years, dors in Indian weddings are still omnipresent.

The parents of the girls are known to sell their land and house to take huge loans or even meet the demands of dowry. It is not even necessary to ensure a happy life for a bride as thousands of people are killed every year to bring inadequate dowry by the groom or her family.

Even in the film, Daulatro indicated “for sale” on its land, even though farming is the only source of their livelihood.

Director Somalak says that his first feature for the film lies in his own experience.

Growing up with two sisters and five women cousins, she watched rituals several times when the future groom visited her home.

“As a child you don’t question the tradition,” he says, saying that in 2016, he came to see a potential bride with a male cousin.

“This was the first time I was on the other side. I felt a little uncomfortable when the woman came out and sat on a stool and asked her question. When we stepped for discussion, I felt that the conversation about her height and skin color was objectionable to her.”

When he discussed the issue with his fiancé at that time – who is now his wife – he encouraged her to find it in his work.

In a country where 90% of all marriages are still arranged by families, not the first to deal with the subject on the sthal screen. IMDB is List of about 30 films About the marriage done by Bollywood and regional film industries in the last two decades.

Recently, wildly popular Netflix show Indian matchmaking Focus on the process of finding the right partner completely the right partner.

But, as Somalkar states, “weddings are highly glamorized” on the screen “.

“When we think of weddings in India, we think about a big -fat wedding wedding wedding and glamor.

“And Netflix shows dealt with only a certain class of people, who are rich and educated and women are able to use their choice.

“But the reality is very different for most Indians and parents often have to go through hell to marry their daughters,” they say.

Their reason for making stalls, he says, “Jolt Society and the audience is to be out of decency.

He says, “I want to start a debate and encourage people to think about a process that object to women who have very little freedom to choose between marriage and career.”

“I know that a book or a film does not change society overnight, but it can be a beginning.”

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