With kind permission: Sthal
The film focuses on Savita, a young woman who strives with education and a career in a patriarchal society
It is often said that weddings are made in paradise.
But in India, where a majority of weddings are organized, the match process can look like a passage through hell for a woman and her family.
It is the premise of Sthal: in match, the Marathi film in 2023 of the marathi language which won several prestigious prizes at festivals in India and abroad. It will be released for the first time in theaters in India on Friday.
Located in the rural state of the Maharashtra, the film focuses on Savita, a young woman who strives with an education and a career in a patriarchal society, and the attempts of his father Daulatrao Wandhare – a poor cotton farmer – to find a good husband for his daughter.
“He wants a good price for his harvest and a good match for his daughter,” said director Jayant Digambar Somalkar.
The film is remarkable for the way he portrays what her main actress calls the “very humiliating” experience of many young women, unlike other Indian films on arranged marriage.
Sthal also drew attention while all his casting is made up of new players chosen in the village where he is shot down. Nandini Chikte, who plays Savita, has already won two awards for her brilliant performance.
With kind permission: Sthal
Eyes slaughtered, Savita is sitting on a wooden stool against a group of men who came to assess it for marriage
The film opens with a sequence where Savita interviews a potential groom.
With her parents and friends, she looks at the young man to serve them drinks on a tray. They laugh when he, visibly nervous, groped during the interrogation.
Budely awake from what turned out to be a dream, Savita is said to prepare while a group of men comes to see her.
In reality, gender roles are completely reversed, and in a scene that has been repeatedly replayed in the film of almost two hours, the humiliation of Savita is concentrated strongly.
The potential groom and other men in his family are welcomed by the father and male parents of Savita. Customers are fed on tea and snacks and once the presentations are completed, Savita is called.
Dressed in a sari, with slaughtered eyes, she sits on a wooden stool in front of her interrogators.
The questions arrive, thick and fast. What is your name? First and last name? Mother clan? Date of birth? Height? Education? Subject? Hobbies? Are you ready to work on the farm?
Men go out to hold a discussion. “She’s a bit dark. She made up on her face, but you haven’t seen her elbow? This is her real color,” said one. “It is also short,” he added. Others nod in agreement.
They leave, telling Daulatrao that they will answer in a few days to let him know their decision.
According to his parents, “it is the fourth or the fifth time that someone has come to see Savita” – all previous meetings ended with rejection, leading to sorrow and despair.
The scene sounds true. In India, men often have a list of attributes they want in their brides – a glance at matrimonial columns in newspapers and matches show that everyone wants big, beautiful and beautiful brides.
With kind permission: Sthal
In the film, the producer of Cotton Daulatrao Wandhare (on the left) and the main objective of his wife in life is to find a good husband for their daughter
Savita’s protests – “I don’t want to get married, I want to finish college first and then take exams for civil services and build a career” – does not bring weight in her rural community, where marriage is presented as the only objective that is worth having for a young woman.
“Marriage is too important in our society,” said Chikte to the BBC. “Parents believe that once the groom is married, they will become free from their responsibility. It is time to change this story.”
She says that she found “very humiliating” that Savita was forced to sit on a stool to be judged by all these men who discussed her skin color, when there was no discussion on the potential groom.
“I only agreed, but as the film progressed, I experienced the trip of Savita and I felt angry in his name. I felt insulted and disrespectful.”
The film also tackles social evil that is the dowry – the practice of the bride’s family offering money, clothes and jewelry to the groom’s family.
Although it has been illegal for over 60 years, dowry has always been omnipresent in Indian weddings.
Parents of girls are known to contract huge loans or even sell their land and home to meet dowry requests. Even this does not necessarily guarantee a happy life to a bride because tens of thousands are killed each year by the groom or his family for bringing insufficient dowry.
Also in the film, Dalatrao sets up a “for sale” sign on its land, even if agriculture is its only source of livelihoods.
With kind permission: Sthal
The whole film is made up of new actors chosen in the village where it is shot
Director Somalkar says that the idea of his first feature film is rooted in his own experience.
Having grown up with two sisters and five cousins, he had witnessed the ritual too many times when the bride and groom visited his house.
“As a child, you do not question tradition,” he said, adding that the turning point came in 2016 when he accompanied a male cousin to see a potential bride.
“It was the first time that I was on the other side. I felt a little uncomfortable when the woman came out and sat on a stool and I was asked questions. When we released for a discussion, I felt that the conversation on her size and her skin color objectified.”
When he discussed the question with his fiancée at the time – who is now his wife – she encouraged him to explore her in his work.
With kind permission: Sthal
The writer-director Jayant Digambar Somalkar says that the idea of his first feature film is rooted in his own experience
In a country where 90% of all weddings are still organized by families, Shal is not the first to approach the subject on the screen. IMDB has a list of nearly 30 films on the arranged marriage directed by Bollywood and the regional film industries in the past two decades.
More recently, the Netflix very popular show Indian Matchmaking has completely focused on the perfect partner’s search process.
But, as Somalkar points out, “weddings are extremely glamorous” on the screen.
“When we think of weddings in India, we think of big wedding big pleasure and glamorous. We think of Hum Aapke Hain Koun,” he said, referring to the Bollywood blockbuster from the 1990s which celebrates Indian marriage traditions.
“And the Netflix show has only dealt with a certain class of people, those who are rich and educated and women can exercise their choice.
“But the reality for the majority of Indians is very different and parents often have to go through hell to marry their daughters,” he adds.
His reason for shal, he says, is to “shake society and the public by complacency.
“I want to start a debate and encourage people to think of a process that objective that has very little freedom to choose between marriage and career,” he said.
“I know that a book or a film does not change society overnight, but it can be a start.”
Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.
