The short film ‘Ahalya’, released around ten years ago remains one of the memorable short films I’ve ever watched simply for how wonderfully a nuanced story from the Hindu scriptures has been interpreted into the modern day context. Ahalya is a character from the Bala Kanda of Ramayana who had to lie in waiting for Lord Rama to arrive and relieve her of the curse that was cast on her by her husband, sage Gautama. The curse, however, was not a result of any fault of her own. She was wronged by Indra, who, enchanted by her beauty, sought out her company and seduced her in the disguise of Sage Gautama in his absence at their hermitage. Sage Gautama, enraged that his wife had cheated on him (even without her awareness and consent), cursed her and turned her into stone. Eventually, realizing that it wasn’t her fault, he prescribed that she will be relieved of the curse when Lord Rama walks the path where she lays in waiting and his feet touches her. And so, Ahalya’s story is that of being wronged by two supposedly great men and lying in endless waiting to be granted her wrongly taken freedom.
In the modern day, Radhika Apte playing Ahalya is a very good looking, seductive woman again married to an old man same Gautham Sadhu. She is, however, not the one from the scriptures who silently endured. In fact, this time, her husband and she have teamed up to extract revenge in the most innovative manner. A magical stone turns men who enter their household into Gautham Sadhu, and they are provided free reign to go see Ahalya in the bedroom. What they do with that free reign determines what happens to them next – and the mystery element of the movie is truly well executed.
Ahalya has only three main characters throughout the film and is a slow paced, rather simply made short movie. But the ending delivers the message point blank. Is it a feministic message or merely an interpretation of an ancient storyline is debatable, but Ahalya certainly is impactful as a short movie. Impactful enough to have stayed in my mind for a long time now, and inspired a pursuit of interpretative films that draw inspiration from scriptures without retelling/rewriting the original storyline.
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