Voices of torment

When tragedy strikes people usually need time to absorb the shock to figure out what it means in their lives Artists usually take longer to react to events and issues to reflect and sometimes provoke others to think and act on it collectively India does not have a huge body of work on film at least that deals with Partition though some of the better known films include Garam Hawa Tamas Mammo Earth Midnightrsquos Children Train to Pakistan and the recent Qissa On the Gujarat riots of 2002 in which over over 1000 were killed mainly Muslims I can recall Rahul Dholakiarsquos Parzania and Nandita Dasrsquo remarkable debut feature FiraaqA still from the film 28 which is a hardhitting story of a woman who was brutally murderedBut I am yet to see any significant feature film that reflects on the recent gang rapes of Nirbhaya the Shakti Mills case and thousands of other Indian women who are raped beaten slashed murdered burnt or have acid thrown at them Quite often because the tea was not perfect Or she didnrsquot love the local goon back Or her husband was drunk Indian women are increasingly losing their lives for trivial and absurd reasons as well as more serious but equally unacceptable reasons adultery property or because she was in love with someone not of the lsquorightrsquo caste or religion And of course such cases are being increasingly reported There have been documentaries and short films on these subjects and a host of feature films on the abuse of women and violence against them physical psychological and otherwise including Ankur Arth Luck by Chance Paromitar Ek Din Bengali Paruthiveeran and Maithaanam Tamil Virgin Talkies Malayalam and a strong new film Madhureeta Anandrsquos Kajarya HindiI was reflecting on this as I was invited this week by the Colombo International Film Festivals Asoka Handagama Festival Director and Anomaa Rajakaruna Festival Programmer to conduct a master class on ldquoBetter Screenplays and Festival Strategiesrdquo I was very honoured to be invited and partly because it was alongside other master class mentors such as Mexican director Carlos Reygadas and Indiarsquos cinematographer Rajeev Ravi And partly because they had 600 applicants and had to shut down the registrations The festivalrsquos closing film was the powerful lsquo28rsquo directed by Prasanna Jayakody and produced by Rasitha Jinasena This is so much a film that needs to be seen in India It is way ahead of Indian cinema in addressing the abuse and violence against women at least what can be commonly accessed in theatres nationwideA middleaged man Abasiri and his nephew are summoned to Colombo to identify the body of a woman who has been raped and murdered and Abasiri discovers it is his estranged wife Suddhi The film is a road movie with comic touches as they transport her body back to the village in a van Despite its flaws the filmrsquos screenplay direction and performances are powerful and compelling of both protagonists Mahendra Perera and Semini Iddamalgoda Following a bad marriage to a much older man Suddhi leaves for Colombo and becomes a sex worker and is eventually raped and murdered Her spirit looking realistic not ghostly shersquos dressed in a strappy lacy dress in which she must have been when she was murdered appears throughout the movie talking directly to the camera She shows us the bodies of other women in the cold morgue drawers telling us how each was also tortured raped and murdered She tells us her own life story She talks to us from her coffin atop the van At the climax she tells the audience ldquoI donrsquot want you to feel sorry for me but for the men who helped to murder merdquo Her expression throughout is deadpan not howling and melodramatic not begging for sympathy and unapologetic In holding her own dignity inviolable even when her body was brutalized and in the Buddhist compassion she shows at the endasking sympathy for her tormentors Suddhi becomes a remarkably powerful figure shaming all men in her society and oursMeenakshi Shedde is India Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival an awardwinning critic curator to festivals worldwide and journalist She can be reached at meenakshisheddegmailcom The views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper