SYNOPSIS

Inspired from a true story, Devaki was premiered at the Osian Cinefan Asian Film Festival in July 2005. Since then it has traveled to 11 International Film Festival amidst much critical accolades. Finally, it won the Best Feature Film award in Ashville International Film Festival.

The plot is derived from a real life incident where a tribal woman named Devakibai was sold in an open auction in Pandhana, a sub-division of Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh, in January 2003. This atrocity was uncovered by journalist Deepak Tiwari and became the cover story of the british magazine, The Week.

The film shows the plight of women in both rural and urban places, once again confirming the belief that it’s still a man’s world. Thus, Bappaditya Bandopadhyay draws parallels between the life of woman living in the rural India and urban India, presenting a real and spooky story of exploitation, sexual molestation and abuse employed on woman.

In the film, Devaki, a young girl who lives in a village, is forced into a marriage with a seventy years old man. On the night of the marriage she is brutally raped by the brother of the impotent old man. In protest to the feudal practices, Nandini, an urban girl, who has come to the village to work as an N.G.O activist quit her job and comes back to the city. But soon Nandini finds out that the urban life is no different. Nandini desperately joins an advertising agency. Her father owns the advertising agency that she joins. Inmediately, Nandini realizes that her father tries to exploit her in the process to gain business. He insists that she sleeps with one of his clients. As a revenge on her father, she decides to sell her self to the old client.

Meanwhile, Devaki develops a relation with a low caste runaway boy. But the villagers catch them in the act of love-making. As punishment, Devaki is made to stand holding a heavy stone on her head. Also, the villagers and the Panchayat, government exercised by the municipal council, decide to auction Devaki to the highest bidder and pay the money to the 70-year-old husband.

TECHNICAL DATA

Director: Bappaditya Bandopadhyay
Producer: K.D. Singh
Cinematography: Rana Dasgupta
Script: Ashish Roy
Editors: Uttam Roy, Rajeev Jhaveri, Shakeel
Music: Bikram Ghosh, Amar Haldipur, P. Sameer
Cast: Ram Kapoor, Suman Ranganathan, Arvin Tucker, Perizaad Zorabian
Runtime : 90 min. Color. Language: english/hindi. Subtitles: english

DIRECTOR

Bappaditya Bandopadhyay has won himself the honor and reputation of being the Most Prominent Director from the BJFA (Bengal Film Journalist Association) in 2003 for his work like film director, television serial director and poet.

Bandopadhyay was born on august 28th 1970 and he graduated in Sociology from Calcutta University. In this way, he became in one of the most famous directors of bengali cinema.

Bappaditya has had a bubbly working life. We just have to focus in the films that he have directed and the awards that these films have received. Bappaditya Bandopadhyay´s first feature film was Sampradan (The offering of the daughter). The film won three awards in the BFJA awards in 2000.

The second one was Silpantar (Colours of hunger). It was premiered at the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria and it was the only Indian film selected at the Helsinki International Film Festival in Finland (2003).

Starring by Perizaad Zorabian and Suman Ranganatha, Devaki, a real story about the women exploitation and sexual molestation, was his third feature film. This film was premiered at the Osian Cinefan Asian Film Festival in July 2005 and it made him win the public support. Also, Kantataar, his last film, was selected in the 7th Osian Cinefan International Film Festival.

However, Bandopadhyay job is not only in the big screen. He directed a television serial, Anandanagarir Kathakata, and he is also a poet of repute. He published a book called Pokader Atmiyasajan (Friends and relatives of the insects). Evenly, he wrote about various aspects of modern cinema.