A nation without women

[Originally published on a weblog called “What Is Liberalism?”]

Star Wars is not especially scary, because we know it is not real, nor possible. The Death Star would be terrifying if real, but the whole story is pure fantasy. Science fiction stories which depict dystopias become scary only when they come close to reality. Such stories are scary when they touch upon things which might come to pass during our lifetimes – genetically engineered viruses that destroy half of humanity, for instance. The scariest stories of all are those which take some catastrophe that is already happening and merely exaggerate a little to make the sharp edges of the story more clear. By this line of thinking, 1984 is one of the greatest horror novels ever written.

And such a story, apparrently, is Mathrubhoomi. Touching on the issue of female infanticide in India, and exaggerating only slightly, this is a movie that scares us with a world in which the women have almost disappeared.

I don’t know where I can find a sub-titled or dubbed version of this movie, but I’m putting it on my list, and I hope to see it soon. After I read Vasudevan Srinivasan’s review of this movie, I decided it was one I had to see. Below is an excerpt of his review:

A girl child is born and the rejoicing father(s) are stunned. A large pot of milk is prepared and the baby girl is just immersed and held till the bubbles die.

Mathrubhoomi – A nation without women. The title comes alive. This is Manish Jha’s movie on female infanticide. The irony was evident in the title. Matrhubhoomi (motherland) – A nation without women….

What happens if the male-female sex ratio falls drastically say 200 women for 1000 men ?

The movie explores these questions in a realistic way.

a young effemenate man play the parts of a dancergirl in a small village skit with all the other vllagers hooting and jeering the dancegirl. They know that it is a man. But they have no choice.

One of the protaganists’ friend gets engaged leaving the protaganist fuming with jeleousy. The groom gleefully says “Choudha saal ki apsara hai” (An Fourteen year old Angel). The wedding ceremony is on and the father pauses to pay the bride’s dad A lakh of rupees and a few cows. As the wedding draws to a close, it is discovered that the bride is a young boy. The boys father escapes with the money.

A powerful family of fuedators are searching high and low for a bride for the eldest son. The pandit (priest) helps them locate a girl (Kalki) . Unable to decide which of the son to be married to. The father marries all his sons to Kalki. The price of Kalki is Rs. 5 Lakhs.

After the wedding, the sons discuss and work out a schedulde for sleeping with their new bride. Exasperatedly, the father father in law crys “What about Me ? ” !!!