by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
This amateur Indian drama has a certain effectiveness because it uses non-actors in a village to portray one of the tragedies of female existence here. In this town and in other places, a young woman is chosen by a female shaman to become a town prostitute, all in the name of religion and for the worship of a particular goddess. After her daughter has been chosen by the shaman, the distraught mother goes to the village elders to beg that her daughter be released from a life that would condemn her to suffering. The elders are willing to do that if the woman can raise enough money for the subsequent fine. Her solution, being abjectly poor, is tragic.
