The Indian film showing the bride’s ‘humiliation’ in arranged marriage

It is often said that marriages are made in heaven.

But in India, where the majority of marriages are arranged, the process of making matches can be passed through hell for a woman and her family.

This is the STHAL: A Match, Gritty Marathi Language 2023, which won many prestigious awards in festivals in India and abroad. It will be launched for the first time in theaters in India on Friday.

The film is centered in the rural state of Maharashtra, and the film focuses on Savita, a young woman who strives to obtain education and profession in a parental community, and her father’s Daulatrao Wandhare’s attempts – poor cotton farms – to find a good husband for his daughter.

“He wants a good price for his crop and a good match for his daughter.”

The film is noticeable for the unusual way, it depicts what its main actress calls a “very humiliating” experience for many young women, unlike other Indian films about arranging marriage.

Sthal also attracted attention because its entire team consists of representatives for the first time they were chosen from the village where he was shot. Nandini Czech, who plays Savita, has already won two awards for her wonderful performance.

The film opens in a sequence where Savita is an interview with the potential groom.

Along with her relatives and friends, she watches while the young man serves drinks from a tray. They laugh when they are clearly floundering, during interrogation.

I woke up rudely to what turned out to be a dream, and asked Savita to prepare because a group of men came to see it.

In fact, the roles of the sexes are completely reversed, and in a scene that was restarted several times in the movie that lasted for about two hours, the SAVITA humiliation comes in the sharp focus.

The potential groom and other men of his family are welcomed by Savita’s father and their male relatives. Guests are fed tea and snacks and once the introductions are completed, savita is called.

She was wearing a sari, with outcast eyes, sitting on a wooden bench facing her investigators.

Questions come, thick and fast. What is your name full name? Mother clan? date of birth? to rise? education? topic? hobbies? Are you ready to work on the farm?

Men go out, to conduct a discussion. One of them says: “She is a little dark. She had makeup on her face, but did you not see her elbow? This is her real color.” “It is also short,” he added. Another gesture in the agreement.

They leave, and they tell Daulatrao that they will respond within a few days to inform their decision.

According to her parents, “This is the fourth or fifth time that someone came to see Savita” – all previous meetings ended in rejection, which led to sorrow and despair.

The scene rings correct. In India, men often have a list of washing from the features they want in their brides – a look at the marital columns in newspapers and matches, everyone shows long, fair and beautiful brides.

Savita protests – “I do not want to marry, I want first to finish the university and then deal with civil service exams and build a profession” – do not carry any weight in her rural community, as marriage is presented as the only goal that deserves to be obtained by a young woman.

“Marriage gives great importance in our society,” Czech to the BBC told BBC. “Parents believe that once the daughter gets married, they will be free from their responsibility. It is time to change that narration.”

She says she found that she was “very insulting” that Savita was taken to sit on the stool to be sentenced to all the men who discussed the color of her skin, while there was no discussion about the potential groom.

“I was only behaving, but as the movie advanced, I lived Savita’s journey and I was angry on her behalf. I felt insulting and disrespect.”

The film also deals with the social evil that is a dowry – the practice of the bride’s family that offers criticism, clothes and jewelry to the groom’s family.

Although he was illegal for more than 60 years, the foals are still present at Indian weddings.

It is known that the fathers of girls get huge loans or even sell their lands and their home to meet the dowry demands. Even this does not necessarily guarantee a happy life for the bride, as tens of thousands are killed every year by the groom or his family to bring her in insufficient foals.

Also in the film, Daulatrao puts a “sale” mark at home, although agriculture is his only source of livelihood.

Director Sumarar says that the idea of ​​his feature film for the first time is rooted in his own experience.

He grew up with two sisters and five cousins, who saw the rituals many times when the potential groom visited his home.

“When I was a child who is not wondering about the tradition,” he says, adding that the turning point came in 2016 when he accompanied a cousin male to see a possible bride.

“This was the first time that I was on the other side. I felt a bit uncomfortable when the woman went out and sat on the stool and asked her questions. When we went out to discuss, I felt modernity about her length and the color of the skin she was facing.”

When he discussed the case with his fiancé at the time – who is now his wife – encouraged him to explore her work.

In a country where 90 % of all marriages are still arranged by families, Sthal is not the first to address the topic on the screen. IMDB A list of approximately 30 films About the arranged marriage by Bollywood and regional film industries in the past two decades.

Recently, the very common Netflix offer Indian reconciliation Focus completely on the process of finding the ideal partner.

However, Somalkar notes, “Wedding Parties is very faded” on the screen.

“When we think about the wedding parties in India, we think about the large fatty fat ceremony,” he says.

“Netflix program is only displayed with a certain class of people, wealthy people, learners and women are able to exercise them.

“But the reality for the majority of Indians is completely different, and parents often have to go to hell to marry their daughters.”

He says his reason to make Sthal is “Jolt Society and Guitiabs motivated by self -consent.

“I want to start a discussion and encourage people to think about the process of exposing women with very few freedom to choose between marriage and profession,” he says.

“I know one book or one movie that does not change the community overnight, but it may be the beginning.”

Follow BBC News India Instagramand YouTube, x and Facebook.