New Delhi   

Bringing alive the grittier side of realm of magic

dummy text

THE REAL WITCHES: A scene from `Jeet' a film by Lavlin Thadani.

They don't wear black or zoom off to distant places on their broomsticks. These are real witches. Far from being able to do anything with just a swish of their wands, they are often the victims in an elaborate power struggle. Killed for being witches in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and parts of North Eastern India even today, they belong to the lower strata of society and have no magic to their name.

Bringing alive this grittier side of the realm of magic is Lavlin Thadani's film "Jeet" (Victory). While the larger-than-life world of Hindi movies focus on the scarier bit of the profession, "Jeet" is also a film that is frightening in its theme, but for completely different reasons.

The film is set in Jhunwada village and revolves around a journalist, Prakash, who decides to become a schoolmaster to learn more about this practice. He gets involved with the lives of the villagers and gets entangled in a plot of the power-hungry village headman, his alcoholic son and the witch doctor, Ojha, to teach a young girl a lesson.

Unlike most commercial films that aim just to entertain, Dr. Thadani's movie hopes to be able to give the audience the opportunity to understand the complex problem of witch branding.

With different elements at play from illiteracy to patriarchal attitudes, caste and often just greed for land, the director gives viewers a rare glimpse into a world that they would usually not get access into. A film that comes highly recommended, it has received rave reviews from the people who matter. From former Prime Minister of India I.K. Gujral to late Punjabi poetess Amrita Pritam, the film seems to have touched a chord with them.

The film will be screened at India International Centre Annexe on Friday at 6 p.m. -- Mandira Nayar

-- Mandira Nayar

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Leaders vie to take credit for Bill on sealing
Continue sealing drive: Supreme Court
GMR group woos AAI staff through their stomachs
DPCC and party legislators hail Sonia Gandhi's victory
Parliament adjourned over Delhi demolitions
Court restrains four lawyers from using pilfered data
A different kind of stag party
Bringing alive the grittier side of realm of magic
MCD continues pick and choose policy: BJP
MCD to appeal to court for allowing meat shops in residential areas
A film on ancient theatre form
Soz confident Mulayam will relent on water to Delhi
Medicos to protest today
Dyal Singh College teachers threaten to abstain from work
On the warpath
Jail Superintendents fined
Wheat import norms relaxed further
Arrested militant underwent training in Bangladesh
Around the City
Briefly
In the Capital Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu