'''Daasi'''


aka Bonded Woman
1988 94’ col Telugu
d/s/m B. Narasinga Rao pc Little India
c A.K. Bir
lp Archana, Roopa, Bhopal Reddy, Sidappa
Naidu, Shilpa


Political melodrama set in the 20s addressing
the practice of purchasing slave girls, often
given as dowry in a marriage, by zamindar
families under the rule of the Nizam of
Hyderabad. Kamakshi (Archana), a daasi
bonded to Jayasimha Rao, becomes pregnant
by her owner. At the command of the
zamindar’s self-indulgent and childless wife,
Kamakshi is forced to have an abortion. The
film uses a neo-expressionist style e.g. the dark
servants’ quarters, the drumbeats announcing
the pregnancy of the landlord’s sister
counterpointed with the daasi’s screams as the
midwife terminates her pregnancy, etc.

[[Film]]