| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
C+ |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Will either depress you or spur you to take action
by marc v (movies profile)
Mar 20, 2008
10
of
10 people found this review helpful
After seeing this movie I was so depressed I ran to the nearest bar to drink. And I do not even drink! The plot wasnt terribly exciting but watching a real life representation of women being oppressed seldom is. This is a story about an adorable feisty 8 year old girl who is just dropped off at a "widows home" after her husband dies. An eight year old girl! Her family shaves her head and leaves her kicking and screaming as she is forcefully pulled inside this prison type setting with no explanation from anyone! She never even knew she was married off in the first place. (???????) The story then follows her life of adjustment at being abandoned and treated as trash not only by her fellow widows who are mostly old women, but by all her own people under the guise of God and the sacred scriptures of the Hindu faith. All through the movie, it becomes very sickening to see that all these widows accept this ostrization as "the will of God." They dont even respect each other and are expected to never date or marry or even talk to a single man again, even if they are still virgins! This is so true it is more like a documentary. The movie ends with a text message saying that there are now 34 million widows in India right now, most living in the same deplorable conditions of poverty, abandonment,unable to have any rights. Just because their husband died! The key truth in the movie was when the main male character tells one of the older widows who is in so much pain from years of isolation "It is not about Gods will. It is about society having less people to worry about. It is about your family having one less person to feed and clothe, another corner of the house that will have more space. Its about money! That is why your family cast you away. They just need an excuse."
So, watching this movie will either make you very, very depressed and feeling helpless. Or...it will make you realize that most women all over 3rd world countries are still today being treated like property and cattle. This movie will clearly show you that being a woman in most parts of the world is a death sentence! They are simply breeding machines and beasts of burden. So either watch this movie and then drink yourself into a stupor, or decide to do something. This movie will either bore you to tears or move you to action. I am a male and it sickens me how we women in America and other prosperous countries have turned their backs on their sisters. This movie was so vast in scope showing that things have not changed in India in thousands of years. Will we be naive enough to think they will change much in the next 100. We hear about Africa, China and India growing so rapidly but it is not the women who primarily benefit.
NEVER THINK A SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE CANNOT CHANGE THE WORLD. INDEED, IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER HAS." Margaret Meade-Anthropologist
This is a movie to inspire us stop waiting for God to do something and to start changing the world. Very powerful. I almost wept at the end, and I am a guy! Hint: If you are dating a guy and want to know if he truly will have feeling for you as time goes on after the newness wears off, take him to see this movie and see how he reacts. If he falls asleep on the movie, get rid of him. -) I wish I was allowed to leave my e-mail. There is much some of us will be inspired to do together.
Peace,
Marc
Marc in Florida |
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