Film Muser

Film Muser Rating : 4 / 5
Release Date : January 16, 2002
Running Time : 105 minutes

In 2001 Digvijay Singh’s Maya earned second place as the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Due to the events of 9/11, Maya didn’t garner quite the attention it would have under normal circumstances. Regardless, the effect of this incredible film is like taking a punch in the stomach. Set against beautiful imagery of India and the freeness and innocence of youth, we see a story lead us down a dark path of barbarism and brutality.

Maya lives with her middle-class uncle and aunt in a rural village in India. Their son Sanjay is roughly the same age as Maya and the two are very close, playing and getting into a lot of youthful mischief. There’s no reason to think they are not a typical family. Early in the film we see that Sanjay is very protective of Maya, often trying to take the blame for any of their misdoings. Their relationship is more that of a brother and a sister.

It’s not long into the movie before Maya has her first menstrual cycle. Not surprisingly she is frightened and tries to hide it from her aunt and uncle. When her aunt does find out about it, she explains to Maya that what has happened is beautiful and that she is now a woman with nothing to be afraid of – what we would expect any mother to tell their daughter under these circumstances. From this point on the story focuses on the family preparing for great feast and ceremony to celebrate the occasion. They travel to the home of Maya’s parents so they can all be together for the auspicious event. They meet with a priest to discuss the upcoming ceremony and everything starts to come together. For some reason, Sanjay has a distrust for the priest and everything that is going on.

Finally when the day of the ceremony arrives, Maya is dressed up beautifully to match the many decorations that are also in place. The ceremony begins as the priests, the family, and droves of friends makes their way through holy grounds, until they reach the temple. The group of priests lead Maya into the temple and everyone else stays outside. Sanjay runs to the door, banging and screaming on it to let Maya out. He is promptly pulled away and told that Maya is fine.

Really, there is no reason to think anything is amiss. The elegance of the ceremony, and the joy of everyone involved reinforces that. The scene then shifts to inside the temple and the remainder of the ceremony is revealed to the audience – it turns out to be a “deflowering ceremony”. I don’t think I need to explain any further. The scene is shown from the waste down, and it is powerful. For a viewer not knowing anything about this film, the climax would come as a complete surprise (even though there is a slight hint in the opening scene). From everything we see leading up to this event, it looks just like the family is preparing for a normal religious ceremony. There is no reason to think otherwise.

The only reasonable people we see in the movie are the children, specifically Sanjay. Throughout the entire movie he is portrayed a kind person, and he is the only one who tries to stop the ceremony. Interestingly there is a side story throughout the film where lizards have started to get into his family’s house. Everyone sees them, but no one actually does anything about them. His father sees one, and merely tries to wave it away. His mother sees one and calls someone else to take care of it. Their servant sees one and shakes a knife at it. Then Sanjay sees one, and smashes it with his boot. He’s the only one that sees there is something wrong, and he takes care of it. As a parallel, everyone sees what is going on with the “deflowering” ceremony, but no one actually does anything about it because it is something that just “is”. Sanjay sees something is wrong, and takes action.

The film does an excellent job of juxtaposing the beautiful scenery against the brutality of the atmosphere. The acting is generally good amongst the adult actors while the main children hold their own. I would have liked the final scenes after the ceremony to be a little deeper. We are given a slight peak of how the event shattered the glowing personality of Maya, but I think it could have been explored further.

Another slight problem I have is that this movie could give a false sense of the frequency of this ritual. Nowhere in the movie does it explain that these deflowering ceremonies are outlawed throughout India and it is a rogue practice among a small rural group. I fear that viewers who may already have little knowledge of the country may think that these ceremonies are a normal activity in India. Apparently these ceremonies are performed between five and fifteen thousand times a year. If you take into account that there are over one billion people in India, its frequency is rare, and probably on par with other cult-type activities in other parts of the world. Either way, even one of these ceremonies is too many.

Memorable Scene
While Maya is in the temple being gang raped by the group of priests, there is a shot of the many family and guests seated around the temple eating the feast that had been prepared for them, and engaged in exuberant conversation. As viewers we are feeling sick to our stomachs knowing what is going on in there, but for the guests, they believe that something beautiful is going on. It’s hard to fathom that such a practice could become a proud ceremony that a family looks forward to.

Note: this movie is presented in Hindi with English subtitles.