Devaki
Devaki
Suman Ranganathan is forced into a marriage with a seventy
years old man.
On the night of the marriage she is brutally
raped by the brother of the impotent old man in order
to establish the age-old practice of physical dominance
of the male over the female. In protest to the feudal
practices, Nandani Perizaad Zorabian, an urban girl, who
has come to the village to work as an N.G.O. activist,
quits her job and comes back to the city.
But soon Nandani finds out that the urban life is no different.
Economically betrayed and physically used by her lover,
Nandani desperately joins an advertising agency. But she
is shocked to find out that her father, who has deserted
the family many years back, owns the agency. The father
comes up with a proposal for Nandani to sleep with one
of the clients in order to procure a business deal.
Meanwhile, Devaki develops a relation with a low caste
runaway boy. For the first time in her life, she felt
loved and valued and an escape from her tormented daily
life. But the villagers catch them in the act of lovemaking.
They are produced before Panchayat. Devaki is made to
stand with holding a heavy stone on her head. The villagers
and the Panchayat come to judgment to auction Devaki to
the highest bid and pay the money to the seventy-year
old husband. Once again another old man buys her.
Meanwhile, Nandani decides to sell her self to the old
client, as a revenge on her father.
The film makes an introspective journey into the lives
of two women coming from strikingly different background
and proves the point that irrespective of the social condition,
literacy level or the economic status, women in our society
are still treated as commodities.
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