As the world customarily deliberates on a woman’s place in society this week, writer-director Jayant Somalkar shows us the mirror through a deceptively simple take on the patriarchal roots of the traditional matchmaking process and the attendant social churn in our villages. Structured like a coming-of-age story of a village girl struggling to find her way out of the dragnet of gender roles and societal expectations, protagonist Savita’s tenacity and quiet rebellion pierce our consciousness.
Seen from a girl’s point of view, Sthal’s scope is not limited to the humiliation a girl and her family endure in finding a suitable match through an arranged marriage. It deconstructs its cultural context, its normalisation, and its consequences. When news pages bring the rise in the number of farmer suicides and the sale of mobile phones in rural Maharashtra into our living rooms, one misses the social pressures and moral conditioning that pushes a peasant to the brink and reduce jobless youth to data.
Employing a perceptive lens, Somalkar fills in the gaps without letting a judgmental or pedantic tone slip into storytelling. Laced with dollops of wit, pop culture references, and a subversive voice, in a way, Sthal feels like an evolved spiritual cousin of Lapaata Ladies in its pursuit to lift the veil on an educated girl’s struggle in rural India.
Set in a Vidharbha village where cotton farmers fight the curse of pests and fluctuating rates of their crop, a sensitive, hard-working student, Savita Daulatrao Wandare (Nandini Chikte), studies sociology but knows fully well that in her immediate society, she is nothing more than a bale of cotton with a short shelf life that needs to be traded as soon as possible.
Bollywood and popular culture often celebrate the process of introduction of prospective bride and groom, with family chatter and shy exchange of glances thrown in. Somalkar pares down the custom to what it is: the barter of a commodity, the search for a product to fertilise the civilisation. The camera captures the process literally, making it funny and deeply disturbing at the same time.
Cinema becomes credible and engaging when the insider’s perspective melds with the outsider’s freedom. Somalkar blends his understanding of the region with his worldview. The family asks the girl to sit on a stool at the centre of the male gaze for a boring interview session where the men throw a few inane questions to check the product profile. She is judged for her skin tone and height. And, despite being educated, her ability to work in fields is crucial, for she is seen as an extra hand on the farm.
If her mother covers her face with makeup, the probing eyes look for the elbows to find the true shade of the skin. Of course, there is a staple question about her homely hobbies, and at the end of the ritual, the eldest member of the bride-finding team doles out a token of appreciation in cash for showing up.
Nandini Chikte in ‘Sthal’.
| Photo Credit:
Video Palace Movies/YouTube
With no agency to break the inane cyclical process, Savita follows the routine but doesn’t let her ambition break the social stereotypes by preparing for a government job. For her farmer father, though, a good price for his crop and a government servant as a groom for his girl are the biggest concerns. He knows his jobless son Mangya can’t be encashed in the marriage market. Mangya has surrendered to his fate without putting up a fight, but Savita keeps at it.
For a brief while, it appears she will break away from the rigmarole when she and her sociology teacher, Khapne, develop a liking for each other. Like the process of bride selection, Somalkar creates a stark visual metaphor for the meetings between Savita and Khapne Sir. Their eyes meet while standing on either side of a newspaper stand in the college library.
It becomes a metaphor for the progressive space. But access to education and a liberal environment don’t translate into change in social behaviour. The person who teaches women empowerment in class can’t stand up to his father when he seeks dowry. Love is not liberating here. It comes with trouble, and perhaps that’s why parents look at an arranged marriage as an honourable option.
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The camera captures how Bhimrao Ambedkar’s call for education, action, and agitation and the slogan ‘Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao’ remain just a part of the scenery where patriarchy is normalised, and social evils like dowry and gender discrimination become a way of life. The struggle of Savitri Bhai Phule is invoked in school functions, but her struggle has not made the path of girls like Savita any easier.
Somalkar’s faith in untrained actors imparts the scenario a charming rawness and empathy to the characters. No one puts up an act. Taranath is impressive as the father who wants to hold on to his land and the dreams of his daughter but is helpless in the face of custom and corruption. It is Nandini who makes this journey deeply engaging. She imbues Savita with a meaningful silence that is distressing but also fills you with hope that she is equipped to make space for herself. In a week when a set of infantile blokes are occupying OTT space, make way for Savita.
Sthal is currently running in theatres
Published – March 08, 2025 03:32 pm IST
Marathi cinema
/
Indian cinema
