In Girish Kasaravalli’s ‘Ghatashraddha’, the ‘complex question of oppression’
The Film Heritage Foundation’s restoration of the Kannada classic will be shown at the Venice Film Festival.
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The Film Heritage Foundation’s latest restoration project resurrects a Kannada classic that was nearly derailed by a perceived curse. Girish Kasaravalli’s Ghatashraddha (1977), a piercing look at the oppressive nature of Brahmanical thought, was completed in challenging circumstances because of its bold theme.
Kasaravalli’s directorial debut has been restored with the backing of The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project steered by Martin Scorsese and the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation run by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson. Ghatashraddha will be screened at the Venice Film Festival (August 28-September 7). The previous Film Heritage Foundation restorations that have been premiered at international festivals are Aravindan Govindan’s Kummatty and Thamp, Aribam Syam Sarma’s Ishanou and Nirad Mohapatra’s Maya Miriga.
Kasaravalli’s adaptation of the UR Ananthamurthy short story of the same name is set in a Vedic school in a village in Karnataka. The school’s founder has a widowed daughter Yamuna (Meena Kuttappa), who becomes a surrogate mother to the new student Naani (Ajith Kumar). Yamuna’s involvement with a school teacher leads to cruel gossip that escalates into tragedy.
One of the film’s motifs is the belief that the worship of snakes improves fertility. The response to Yamuna’s pregnancy exposes a veritable snake-pit, as the pure-hearted Naani realises.
Ghatashraddha had been on the radar of Film Heritage Foundation’s founder Shivendra...
