Maya

The first thing that struck me about the film "Maya" was the beautiful cinematography. Sweeping shots of the Indian landscape, touching moments between children and family, brilliant colors, close-up's of lizards (I'm guessing they mean something in Indian culture that I am not aware of.): all these contributed to the overall aesthetic appeal of the film. However, the visual beauty of the film provided a stark contrast to the actual message behind the images. This movie is about brutal religious practices still affecting young girls in some parts of India. The serenity of the majority of the film provides a stark contrast with the dark message beneath. This film not only raises awareness of these brutal practices but does so in the most effective of ways. "Maya" provides an extremely important message, and it also is an achievement in cinematic production. I thought this film was extremely well done, and it has taught me even more about practices such as these that still exist in a world outside mine.

The story unfolds slowly - maybe a little too slowly - but overall is beautifully told. Two cousins - a boy and girl - are caught up in a ritual triggered when the girl starts to menstruate. The brutal climax of the ritual is genuinely shocking. The girl, Maya, is raped by holy men. This is part of the ritual, and guests feast outside the temple while it's happening. The adults in the story see such rapes as rites of passage and celebrations of family prestige.

Perhaps characters and attitudes are too black and white; metaphors are a bit heavyhanded; and there is little nuance, but this film has considerable qualities too - not least that it tackles an important and current issue - and does it well.

MAYA (dir. Digvijay Singh) This film is an attempt to draw attention to a supposed violent and exploitative practice against young Hindu women, however, the film does little to authenticate the reality of this threat. We watch as a happy young girl from rural India becomes a young woman, and is then subjected to a religious ritual in which she is gang raped by the priests of the temple. This seems to be condoned by the family and sanctioned by the community, yet It is not clear when this supposedly took place (anywhere from the 1950's to the present), or if there is any actual scriptural basis for this particularly grotesque rite. If this is a true depiction of an authentic Hindu ceremony, I would like to see proof. The film reminded me of the ancient belief that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.

Digvijay Singh's tragic observation of life in secluded India is both invigorating, in the sense that life, and its people seem to care only for the simple things that make them happy, and it is above all savagely tragic, in ways that certain rites and traditions are not or should not exist in the first place.

The tragedy is amplified quite masterfully by the approach of the little girl's life. The film centers around her innocent childly activities and her simple (yet perhaps quite harsh) life in a poor under developped area of India. Unfortunately, fate would have it that the child must grow and become aware of certain aspects of life which simply can't be understood nor accepted.

This film is a prime example of how I see tragedy. To fully implement a strong sense of tragic, one needs to build it around simple minded genuine calmness. I found the film perfect in this aspect.

i saw this film recently at the cinemanila international film festival not knowing what to expect.

i went out of the theater truly shocked and repulsed, not by the film, but what it showed. the only thing that i kept on saying to my self was "i hope what the film showed was not true".