Mathrubhoomi - A nation without women

Mathrubhoomi - A nation without woman.

I saw this movie a few days back. Had been looking around for it since quite some time and finally laid hands on it. Its been hailed as one amongst the top 10 movies of the year by Time. Much to its credit its indeed a hard hitting movie.

Backdrop: Set in a futuristic (not by the development angle but just a passage in time) village, it shows a situation where because of the practice of female infanticide, there are no women left in the village. There is a family of a father with his five sons. The sons are all eligible bachelors but the father can't find a bride for his sons in or around the village. The village is a wreck psychologically and the only vent for the sexual desires of men being pornographic material. The same is depicted in a chilling manner.
The story takes a turn, when suddenly the priest who's been entrusted with the responsibility of finding a bride for the guys, comes across a girl who has been kept in hiding by her father. The father of the five sons comes to meet the girl's father along with his youngest son. As it turns out the father of the girls ends up "selling" his daughter and "marries" her off to all the five sons. Here on the story takes the morbid turn depicting the suffering of the girl at the hands of four of the sons and their father, while the fifth son gets killed at the hands of his own brothers out of jealousy. The film then hurries into a shattering climax taking a caste angle as well. The girl having been raped by so many men and tortured, gives birth to a girl while half of the village kills eachother speculating on who is the father of the "boy".

The film to say the least is chilling. It hits you in the face with no qualms. Its an issue which deserves no mercy in treatment and hence doesn't get any either. Come to think of it, a world without women would indeed be bereft of any emotions, love or sanity. The most beautiful creation of god after all has a meaning to herself. The dignity of women, if hurt, can only lead to breakdown of unimaginable scale and a complete destruction of the social fabric that we live in.

It also delves into the issues of sexuality and its expression. The female lead lives with 5 husbands and yet the only time she derives pleasure is when she's with one guy. The other four and the father in law themselves end up feeling no pleasure. Thus the role of sexuality in love is shown in a very subtle manner and yet true to its importance. The importance of it being just as a beautiful expression of love. If there is no underlying love it is just a commodity of consumption which you can only enjoy till as much time you don't get bored of it. Beyond that, the desire just kills you from within and the person ceases to be a man.

Another aspect that is highlighted is how raping a woman is used as an instrument of taking revenge. It just shows both, the cowardice of a man as well as the respect that we have for women in the patriarchal feudal society still prevelant.

Towards the end the movie weaves, magically, all these issues into one fabric and depicts the potential anarchy that we could actually be heading to. With new statistics flowing in everyday about the male to female ratio falling in the most affluent (mind it, affluent and not educated) states of our country, the movie just runs a chill into your spine.

Technically its a very well shot movie with taut editing. The metaphoric depictions and the what is there is what you see kind of hard hitting scenes in a right mix, its a cinema lover's delight. However it surely is not for the weak hearted. It leaves you numb with some of its scenes. So much so that you can't perhaps think of anything else after the movie is over. You search for a light movie in your library to get over it.

All in all, its a must watch for those who like quality cinema.