The Ritual 

Ghatashraddha / The Ritual 

Girish Kasaravalli, India, 1977, 108’

The debut work by one of the pioneers of the Indian New Wave is a film about the cruel ostracism of a young widow who breaks the rigid code of the orthodox Brahmin caste.  

Set in South India, the film describes the ostracism of a young woman who transgresses the rigid sexual code of the orthodox Brahmin society. The style is deceptively simple in telling the story of Yamuna, a child widow living with her father in the Vedic school which he runs. Seduced and made pregnant by the teacher of the local government school, Yamuna attempts suicide but is rescued by a young student of her father’s called Nani with whom she has a deep bond of affection. She agrees to an abortion – equally suicidal, for, though she survives, she is left in pain and is made an outcast by her own father, who performs a funeral rite for his still-living daughter. In this rite, an earthen pot, symbol of fertility, is broken. 

Girish Kasaravalli was born in 1950 in Kasaravalli village in the state of Karnataka in South India. one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including four Best Feature Films; The Ritual (Ghatashraddha, 1977), Tabarana Kathe (1986), Thaayi Saheba (1997) and The Island (Dweepa, 2002). In 2011, he was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by Government of India. 

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Girish Kasaravalli.