If we dig down history and go to the era of Ancient India, people followed a lot of things but everything had a valid reason. But over the years these were looked at as traditions that defined our rich culture. But the negative aspects were that people became more superstitious as we evolved further. Soon they became dependant on this and a new belief was born which had a positive, as well as a negative mark, being a path of hope and at the same time declining the strength of self-dependency.
The film ‘Badha’ takes you deep into the countryside India wherein everyone has their own problems but this story is about two women who are bounded with societal stereotypes and fall under the prey of superstitions. All of these are followed after strange incidents occur in a village as an only son of the family disappears and his grandmother is worried that there will be no future generations of the family. Her youngest daughter-in-law faces pressure for a male child but this has been made impossible by her husband’s constant refusal,
On one side we have Anshi who is trapped within her stereotypical family while on the other hand there’s Sarjabai an educated lady and wife of an army man serving on the border. Both characters vary a lot but are bonded with superstitions and stereotypes. Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar are among the Indian directors who are deeply connected with Indian soil and their films have a lot of things to convey which we aren’t yet aware of.
Badha also goes on to add another masterpiece in the filmography of this director duo making it one of the only films to have explored various themes within a story. The trend of anthologies began now but this film will clearly give you a similar feeling of that of an anthology as it deals with different characters at the same time connecting them with a single conclusion which makes it quite engaging to watch.
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