There were 1,226 dowry deaths in Bihar in 2007. Such figures don’t surprise us any more, do they? But what does make us sit up is another statistic. Last year, between January and November, 1,224 men were abducted in Bihar and forced to marry the daughters of the abductors.
Most of these men had demanded exorbitant dowries. Unable to meet these demands, the girls’ families had resorted to this modus operandi. The grooms’ families had no face to complain to the authorities since asking for dowry is illegal.
Unchecked, groom abduction has thus become a high-profit, low-risk business for the goons hired to carry out the kidnappings. What happens thereafter to the couple?
“Surprisingly, these marriages work,” observes an Additional Director General of Police.
Shocking? Not in Bihar where pakrauah shaadi or jabariya shaadi, as these forced nuptials are called, almost have social sanction.
And so, while the above incidents took place mostly among higher caste Hindus, the lower, aspiring classes, too, have started adopting similar tactics to get eligible grooms for their not-so-qualified daughters.
And hapless young men, who have made no demands for dowry, are also being arm-twisted into marrying girls not of their choosing.
Antardwand, which released this Friday, is a national award-winning film on this subject. A young, aspiring civil servant (played by Raj Singh Chaudhary) is captured, beaten up, drugged and forcibly married to an equally reluctant girl because her father’s self-respect has been hurt by the boy’s father — “mooch ke khatir” as he explains.
What happens after the saath phere would appear bizarre to those outside Bihar. But Antardwand is based on a true story and focuses not just on the captive groom’s plight but also on the trauma the bride goes through.
Swati Sen’s finely-nuanced portrayal of the bride has already won her many trophies at international festivals. (Being from Bihar herself, perhaps, helped her to play the role with greater conviction.)
Producer-director Sushil Rajpal is from Ranchi, close to the terrain he has presented so authentically. The film was inspired by a real-life incident that happened to one of his friends who is embroiled in a court case for the last 28 years against the woman he was forced into marrying.
It’s a tricky situation, as Antardwand shows, because the brides’ families exploit legal loopholes very cannily. After locking up the hero and his bride in a room for several days, the girl’s family breaks his spirit further by beating him up, drugging him, and taunting him with cries of impotence. All this to force him to consummate the marriage (‘settle hona chahiye’ is how they put it) and make his position legally weak. Crude? Yes, but we are talking here of a state notorious for its backwardness.
The film could easily have become melodramatic by playing to the galleries, but storywriter and director Rajpal has made a gripping film on a difficult subject, walking a tight rope between the groom and bride’s predicaments. An FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) graduate, Rajpal earns his living cranking the camera for the advertising world. And he has used his skills from the latter field to pack in numerous details in a short, multi-layered film. “Advertising teaches you not to waste time”, he agrees.
Shot entirely on location in Bihar and Delhi, the film is authentic in other ways as well. The costumes were made by local tailors, the raunchy music has a taste of feudal Bihar, and a large part of the supporting cast was sourced from here. “I’ve touched upon the culture, behaviour, language and attitude of the landscape I have projected in my film,” says the filmmaker.
Since Rajpal made the film with his own money, it couldn’t have been easy; but producing the film was a breeze compared to the trauma he underwent to have his film exhibited in the theatres. For two years, the company that bought his film failed to release it.
Awards, national and international, and encouraging words of appreciation from colleagues like Anurag Kashyap and Imtiaz Ali kept his morale high during this frustrating phase. And then a doctor friend from the US came by like a saviour and took it upon himself to distribute the film.
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