In Bad Taste!

The Shameless (Hindi, 2024)
Written & Directed by: Konstatin Bojanov

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15437986/

The director initially aimed to make a documentary after acquiring the rights to William Dalrymple's book, 'Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India'. Due to financial constraints, he ultimately produced this feature film instead. The subject of this film was drawn from one of the nine stories (lives) in the book.

This multinational production has been hailed as a bold, provocative queer movie that highlights the challenges faced by the modern Indian woman. It even gained recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. Of course, it did. Any film that presents a bleak view of India tends to succeed internationally, just like Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2008. Portraying India as grimy, lawless, lacking culture, and saturated with toxic masculinity appears to be a favourite pastime. Nothing has changed since Columbus 'discovered' the New World, and the Portuguese were accompanied by Gujarati seafarers from Durban to Kalikat. The colonists assume the role of bearers of truth, burdened with the task of educating the 'less civilised'.

A sex worker named Renuka escapes from a brothel after killing a police officer. The worker lives incognito next to a Hindu religious family. The family belongs to the devadasi community and is preparing to 'send off' their teenage daughter, Devika, to the highest bidder to serve at a temple. 

In the historical context, during the pre-colonial era, it was customary to 'marry' pre-pubescent girls from lower castes to Goddess Yellamma, dedicating their lives to the goddess's service and temple duties. These girls often became concubines to wealthy men and, in some cases, accumulated wealth themselves. Since 1988, this tradition has been outlawed, and the temple has distanced itself from their plight.

So, the filmmakers decided to portray a non-existent problem as significant. Essentially, they equated the drug-addicted, hard-drinking prostitute with the girl from the devadasi community, who is handed over to the temple—both as sex workers, one due to social circumstances and the other in the name of an archaic religious practice. Coincidentally, the two girls develop a romantic attraction and plan an escape, with the police and the girl's mother close behind. A Hindu nationalist party is also involved in this complex situation. 

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