Long before the Right to Information Act and Right to Education Act, Govind Nihalani’s film Sanshodhan (The Amendment) talked with compulsive honesty about the lack of transparency in official procedures and the bureaucratic hurdles faced by activists.
This NFDC-UNICEF produced film from 1996 is themed around women’s participation in governance. With a well-researched script by Nihalani and playwright Tripurari Sharma, Sanshodhan exposes the realities of rural politics.
Sanshodhan is set in a Rajasthan village, where affluent, upper-caste men control the local politics. When the government makes it mandatory to reserve seats in every village panchayat for women, the men try to manipulate the system by fielding the women of their families. The film’s protagonist, Vidya (Vanya Joshi), the newly-married bride of a poor shop-owner, Bhanwar (Manoj Bajpayee), is one such candidate. Vidya, however, doesn’t turn out to be the marionette they had hoped for.
Vidya journeys from being a pawn of powerful men to a self-aware woman to ultimately a mass mobiliser. Joshi portrays Vidya with sensitivity. “The story resonated with me as my late grandmother was a social worker who worked extensively with women. So, Vidya’s transformation from a demure, hesitant bride to a confident woman on a mission happens organically. The changes in her tone, body language and even the gradual shift of the sari’s pallu covering her head happen over a course of time,” says Joshi, who bagged the role after Nihalani saw her in the telefilm, Abhi Nahin .
On her behalf
The film’s observations about patriarchy and gender inequity are on point. Although Vidya is a graduate, nobody asks her before fielding her as a candidate. In fact, she isn’t even aware that she is filing the nomination papers when Bhanwar asks her to sign on some documents. In a telling scene, Vidya opens a dusty window and looks on curiously at the ongoing campaign. A jeep full of men passes by, with her husband and the partymen chanting, “ Padhi likhi aaj ki naari, Vidya Devi,” (‘Vidya Devi, the well-educated woman of today’) and seeking votes on her behalf.
Sanshodhan shows that the struggle of women for self-determination is the same across social divides. Vidya, for all her power as an elected representative, is pressured and publicly chided by her husband for not obeying the sarpanch’s diktats. Her friend Manju (Kavita Rayirath) is trapped in an oppressive marriage with the sarpanch. And then there is Mahisari (Utkarsha Naik), a feisty daily wage earner whose protests go unheard because of her low social and economic status.
As a counterpoint, there is female solidarity in Vidya’s relationship with her mother-in-law, played by the formidable Uttara Baokar. “She offers counsel to her daughter-in-law, stands by her steadfastly, and isn’t hesitant to call out her son when he is in the wrong,” says Joshi.
Given the film’s subject — government reforms — Sanshodhan could have been dull and preachy. Instead, under Nihalani’s masterful direction, we have a slow-burning, compelling feminist film.
As Vidya says in the film: Rishta tabhi qaayam hota hai jab ek dabne waala ho aur ek dabaane waala? Dono baraabar nahin ho sakte kya? (‘Can there be a relationship only when there is an oppressor and an oppressed? Can’t the two be equal?’)
The Bengaluru-based freelance writer believes one Rafi song a day keeps the doctor away.
