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
No comments:
Post a Comment