Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women (2003)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Manish Jha

Writer:

Manish Jha (written by)

Release Date:

15 October 2004 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A woman, attended by two midwives, is giving birth in a small village in India. When the child's cry rings...

Plot Keywords:

Birth | Dowry | Marriage | Killing | Love

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tulip Joshi	...	Kalki
Sudhir Pandey	...	Ramsharan
Sushant Singh	...	Sooraj
Pankaj Jha	...	Rakesh
Piyush Mishra	...	Jagannath
Vinamra Pancharia	...	Raghu
Mukesh Bhatt	...	Kachra
Deepak Kumar Bandhu	...	Shailesh
Sanjay Kumar	...	Brijesh
Srivas Naidu	...	Lokesh (as Shrivas Nydu)
Amin Gazi	...	Sukha
Chittaranjan Giri	...	Pappu
Farooq Sarkari	...	Gajendra
Rajesh Jais	...	Princess Pinky
Latesh Chaudhary	...	Pappu's Bride (as Latesh Choudhari)

Also Known As:

A Country Without Women (International: English title)
A Nation Without Women (International: English title)
Matrubhoomi un monde sans femmes (France)

Runtime:

Canada:99 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

France | India

Language:

Hindi | Bengali | Telugu | Tamil | Bhojpuri | Gujarati

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Norway:15 | UK:15

Company:

Diaphana Films

Trivia:

Released in India in six languages: Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and Bhojpuri.

one of the better movies to come out this year

The title 'matrubhoomi' is an apt satirical name from this hard-hitting movie on female infanticide.

The movie is based on a fictional, futuristic rural area in India where there is a dearth of fairer sex. The story revolves around Kalki, one of the very few surviving young women and her ordeals in such a dysfunctional society.

Tulip Joshi has delivered a very restraint performance. Her suppressed character doesn't speak much but does have a lot to say. Joshi with her subtle facial expression has done that with total perfection. She could had ruined it easily by giving a loud shrieking/screaming act.The director is also to be given credit for it.In an era when some actress' 'Charlie Chaplin' act is winning all accolades, its unfortunate that this wonderful performance went unnoticed..The rest of the cast has also done a good job. The first time director Manish Jha has done a remarkable.He never gets carried and not allowed the movie to go loud at any instance.The innovative script is quite gripping and never goes astray. The rustic look of rural India is very realistically captured in the camera. On the negative side, one may feel that the violent developments towards the end of the movie was bit overdone but then its difficult to predict how lowly man can go under extreme conditions.

Another good point is that the extreme sexual violence is implied but not graphical.Overall a good, hard-hitting, must watch movie though certain sections of audience may not identify with the movie because of its gloomy, 'not so feel good' nature.