Pratyusha (1979)

Radical and revealing, this intense social drama delves into the injustice of the Jogu’ custom practised in some villages where a possessed devadasi (temple prostitute and dancer) selects, in the name of religion, another woman who shall succeed her as a prostitute. Performed by non- professionals and shot in documentary style on location in Binola in Nizamabad, focuses on a mother who refuses to hand over her chosen daughter and, because she cannot afford to pay the fine for this infringement against ‘religious’ duty. How will the desperate mother protect her child from this injustice? What kind of extreme measures will she be forced to employ?