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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