Films of the Spirit

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Ghatashraddha, (Kannada)

(144 min; 1977; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Girish  Kasaravalli

 

Set in a rural orthodox Brahmin Karnataka village, Kasaravalli’s first feature film tells the story of a child widow through the eyes of a young boy. Yamuna a young widow stays in an agrahara with her father Udupa, who runs a Veda Pathshala. Nani, the new entrant to the school likes her. Yamuna befriends the village school teacher and becomes pregnant. Soon the villagers find out and terming it “immoral” they decide to outcast her by performing the Ghatashraddha ritual

 

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility; and National Film Archive, Pune)