Bijuka

Bijuka

a Parshva Productions

Directed by Ashtar Sayed

Produced by 

Charlotte Poth & Atul Shah

In an intimate look at the status of women in northern rural India, Bijuka tells the story of Lalli and Painku, a young couple brought together by arranged marriage. Painku, rumored to be a grand lothario in his village, harbors a secret that undercuts their new union. Lalli’s life, one of indentured servitude and drudgery and coldness and lack of interest by her husband. As the first rains fall, Lalli is allowed to return home for a brief visit. While confiding in her family about her new life, Lalli tells her family that she and Painku had yet to consummate their union. In this, Lalli’s father believes he has found a lynch pin that could justify an annulment. When Lalli fails to return to Painku, he implores the village Panchayat to intercede. During the meeting of the council, it is ordered that Lalli must provide physical proof of Painku’s impotence by demonstrating he act before them.  AS soon as the village council get the couple alone, she is gang raped while her husband retrains her. After the assault, the member of the council proclaim that Lalli’s allegations of Painku’s impotence was a lie and that Lalli must return to her husband’s home. In the dead of night, a beaten and shattered Lalli kills her husband with an axe. She turned her self in for the murder and is now serving a life sentence in Rajasthan prison.