Maya

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.

This movie is really split in two. The first half is the "innocent kids enjoying their youth" section, and the other half is the "holy samosoa! Did they just do what I think they just did?" section.

The first half I thouroughly enjoyed cause it reminded me of when I was a lil boy growing up in Trinidad, and Toronto. The beautiful cinematography, and bright sunshiney, summerey, goodness, made me feel feel like I really was 12 years old again.

The second half is totaly different, as MAYA has her innocence taken, by way of a (horrible) traditional comming-of-age tradition. The movie gets dark in a hurry, and the sunshiney goodness, is replaced with the hard realities of life.

Overal, this movie made me think of two main things:

1- Being a kid was soooo much frackin fun. Growing up sucks.

2- Religion is a dangerous thing.

7.5/10

I saw Maya yesterday at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. A young girl lives with her uncle and aunt, two well-respected people in a small village. Maya lives happily and spends her days playing with her nephew Sanjun. One day her first menstruation starts and the family travel to the village of her mother to celebrate the fact that she has become a grown-up woman.

The film starts with the text "based on true practises". Despite the radiance and loveliness of the movie, this line sticks with you, preparing you for an unavoidable climax in which things are not as pleasant as they seem.

Maya is a movie with an absolutely incredible scenery and cinematography. Beautiful Landscapes and sunsets create an almost serene silence in between the various scenes. Lighting and color are excellent and create an environment in which you can feel the warm climate. Scenes, sometimes slow but never boring, are kept light with subtle but effective humourous moments.

I found Maya a refreshing and overall quite light movie that deals with a heavy subject, revealed towards the end of the film. Just the crisp image, vivid colors and stunning soundtrack alone already make this movie worth watching. However, its subtle screenplay,gradually revealing a shocking truth is what really makes Maya a small gem.

I love to watch documentaries as against pure commercial flicks and so I picked up this movie. Mita Vashisht,Ananth nag and the kids have put in a brilliant performance. The first part of the movie really kept me guessing what the story was all about.I thought it was really generous of the couple to bring up Maya as their own kid.The pranks played by the children did remind me at times of the fun we had as kids.Other than that there was nothing special really. As the story progressed about the girls first period I thought they would show just another ritual performed in some parts of our country. What was shocking was it was more than just a ritual........a brutal rape and child abuse still prevalent in our country, which I thought never existed.In the name of religion people are encouraging the wrong practices.Maya should be an eye opener to the educated section of our society who can create more awareness amongst the superstitious and orthodox community.

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.