Sthal, a Marathi movie

 I saw this movie yesterday by actually going to a movie theatre. It is located in a big mall and the entire ambience of the place makes you believe that you are in Singapore or US.

The theme of the movie was totally at odds with the surroundings.

The movie deals with Savita, a final year B.A. student in a college in Varora/ Varoda in Vidarbha where Baba Amte's Anandvan is located. Savita hopes to appear for her MPSC examination and become a deputy collector but her parents are anxious to get her married. The school teacher in Varora keeps bringing a number of 'sthal's or proposals. (The movie has English subtitles and sthal is translated as a match. I think a proposal is a better word.)

There is a set formula for looking over the girl. Four persons including the bridegroom to be come over to her house and are treated to tea and 'kandapohe'. The eldest relative asks the girl the same set of 5 or 6 questions and she touches their feet before withdrawing. The elderly relative of the groom hands over to her Rs. 100 or 200 to return the hospitality. Then they take leave, saying they would consult others in the family and then communicate their decision. It has been a rejection so far for Savita while one of her friends makes it to be chosen by a state electricity lineman, a coveted position because it is semi-government and permanent. Another friend decides to elope with her boy friend.

 Savita remains and because she is not chosen, her younger brother cannot offer for his sweet heart who is also married off.

Savita is more keen on her examination but one more sthal comes on the day of the examination and her mother forces her to give up her examination. Then a lecturer in her college who is sweet on her comes to see her but his father demands a dowry of Rs. 5 lakh. His reasoning is simple: he had to offer Rs. 10 lakh to secure the teaching post for his son. The son is powerless before his father.

Savita's father is not poor. He owns and cultivates a few acres of land and grows cotton, a cash crop on it. He also wants his daughter to appear for the examination. He tries all the means at his disposal but is unable to raise the amount of dowry and consumes an insecticide. The continuous fall in the market price of cotton adds to his woes. He does not die and Savita's ordeal continues.

The mechanics of the examination and the commercial give and take lead to complete disillusionment of Savita and she rebels in one ceremony. The details are not shown. She raises her fist and the movie ends.

What is extraordinary about this movie is that there are no established actors in it. It is shot in the place and real people act in it. They do not act but live their life before the camera. The locale, the village atmosphere, other people - everything is hundred percent genuine. Most remarkable is the person who has played the role of Savita's father.

The movie unfolds slowly and viewers become a part of the story.

The shortcoming is its weak, obscure ending. It leaves viewers frustrated.

Farmers' distress and suicides is a theme that has been explored in a number of Marathi films. Sadanand Deshmukh's novel 'Baromas' is on the same theme and it has been compared with John Steinbeck's Grapes of wrath. With so much in the background, the movie's ending is not justified. Surely, some indication of a rebellion, protest, change could have been shown.

What change is possible for distressed farmers? There is no future in farming. Their sons must come to cities and become delivery boys for Zomato and Swiggy. Some could take up ITI courses and become plumbers, electricians, carpenters. They have to leave their stereotyped thinking of going for permanent jobs behind. Even Savita must forget about her MPSC examination and be ready to give tuitions in a city.

These are changes which are happening all around us. Newspapers are reporting them everyday.

Then why is the artist community still celebrating the loss of an outdated way of life?

A good old mystery

 Set in England in the post world war 2 period and on the lines of Agatha Christie but far more cerebral, An English Murder by Cyril Hare is an absorbing book. It uses her favourite plot: characters gather together for a special occasion and then start falling dead one by one. Who is the killer and what is the motive?

The occasion here is Christmas. Relatives and friends, five in all, of Viscount Warbeck gather at his country estate. One of them, Sir Julius Warbeck, Chancellor of the Exchequer comes with a police+ sergeant tasked to keep him safe. There are two ladies and there is a historian, Prof. Bottwink who is a Hungarian and a Jew. He helps to shed light on the mystery. There is no sleuth.

The style of speech and writing is very didactic and much is made of 'Englishness'. The long winded sentences put me to sleep several times because I read it as an audio book. Nonetheless, it is an interesting book.

Its tone is intellectual because its author was an English barrister and judge. He was Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark (1900 - 1958) who used the pseudonym Cyril Hare for his writings. His Tragedy at law, 1937 is better known than the present book published in 1951. Tragedy at Law is often described as the best mystery novel with a legal background and it is also reputed to have never gone out of print so far.

Cyril Hare has created two famous detectives: Inspector Mallett and Francis Pettigrew. He wrote non- detective short stories some of which have been acclaimed and a collection of his detective stories, Best detective stories of Cyril Hare is available.

A Russian film, A very English murder was made in 1974 based on An English Murder.

I know that there are some fans of detective stories and novels among my readers. They could certainly give the book a once over.