Sthal (a match), Jayant Digambar Somalkar’s debut -Marathi film – A convinced criticism of matchmaking and arranged marriage rituals in rural Maharashtra – was published in the theaters on March 7, 2025 on the occasion of International Women’s Day. It had a world premiere at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) 2023, where it won Netpac Award for the best Asian film.
Sthal follows the life of Savita (Nandini Chikte), a young woman from Dongergaon – a small town in Maharashtra. She lives with her parents and her brother. Her father is a cotton builder who wants to get married as soon as possible – the load of an unmarried daughter is difficult to sit on his chest. The despair of getting married is that it is shown a few times a week in front of the groom’s family.
A dream of agency and the constant cycle of humiliation in Sthal
Sthal begins with a moment that appears almost prophetic – Savita, together with her friends and female family members, questions the future groom while sitting in front of them in a chair and lowering his head as Savita. But then Savita wakes up from her dream. This reversal of the roles is as brazen as to think.
Source: IMDB
The constant dehumanization of women who remove them and disperpose them by subjecting them to the humiliating questions, and Somalkar decides the normalization of the matchmaking in Maharashtra and India as a whole.
The opening scene with reverse roles sets the tone for the entire film. Immediately after Savita woke up from the dream, a repeated cycle of interrogation that has enforced it is deprived of her agency and expects it to only bear the judgment of the male relatives of the groom. Savita is a student of the 3rd annual studies who studies sociology and strives for competition tests.
However, your parents are looking for a groom and send them off. Savita becomes a goods, part of a exchange, when the potential male relatives analyze their appearance and finally decide whether they are worth the “trade”.
There is no Redeemer, just a representation of the biting reality that still prescribes life of so many women.
Savita is selected for your complexion; They make their size and their simple appearance a challenging marriage prospect. The male relatives take over the interrogation and underline the power they keep about these decisions. The women in Savita’s family have no voice either. They simply exist to make the house presented, to cook and serve the groom’s family and then to withdraw behind the walls. While all of her friends marry, she continues to be rejected, and this becomes a concern about her family, which she only wants to marry. Since Savita follows the routine of this cyclical reputation, she continues to dream of studying further – a silent resistance.
Romance and reality: break the pink glasses
In her college, Savita falls in love with her sociology lecturer, who is equally attracted to her. He teaches about the strengthening of women and the importance of women who have their decisions. Savita finds his progressive thoughts attractive and looks at him gently and differs from all the men whom she has ever met. Her subtle eye contact, while it is in the library on both sides of an increased newspaper, is a strong contrast to the scenes of potential families. It tried to highlight the progressive space and the liberal surroundings around them, which looked like it was the change in history. The story breaks the cycle of patriarchal humiliation and establishes a connection that is rooted in the same love, respect and advanced inclinations.
However, what follows determines reality. Many theoretical ideals do not translate into practice. The patriarchal institution is too deeply rooted in society, so that it does not even escape the apparently progressive teachers. The teacher who speaks of women empowerment takes the wishes of his family and asks for dowry. Therefore, there is no Redeemer, just a representation of the biting reality that still determines the life of so many women.
The cinematography that emphasizes the ordinary
Kinematography captures the wealth of the ordinary life of rural Maharashtra and grasps everyday with such a biting reality that it will certainly have an effect. While Sthal reflects a scorching reflection of the absurdity of the “bridal selection”, it does not become preaching. It speaks of the social restrictions and irrationality of the matchmaking tradition by concentrating on the humiliation that Savita is confronted with every time the family of the potential groom “questioned” the bride, a scene that has been shown several times in the film.
Source: the Hindu
The film follows an observation approach and leaves the viewers uncomfortable with the reality that it unfolds. The film enables the monotony and humiliation of Savitas experience to tell its own history. There is no melodrama, no obvious villains, just a frightening but observing lens about society that is based on structures that roam women in the name of the tradition of autonomy. If the film is rooted in Savitas perspective, it calls on the audience to question the material of these customs.
Performative rituals and the marketing of the self
In a research paper entitled “Performative quality in the ritual of the matchmaking in Serena Nanda’s essay”, which arranges a marriage in India “, the author spoke about performative aspects of traditional matchmaking. It talks about how social pressure and traditional structures often suppress the individual agency in favor of municipal roles, values and expectations.
Marriages instead of being a legal and emotional commitment have become a ritualized transformation of social identity. And the performative nature of matchmaking, which clearly shows itself in the “presentation of the self” in front of the groom’s family, should maintain the cultural continuity and at the same time actively refuse the agency of women. Here the conformity becomes important and often prioritizes the individual preference, which is very well presented by Somalkar by the observation lens that he delivers to the viewers.
This matchmaking process, which is more than a princess and has selected life partners, is to be confirmed, confirmed and passed on to a cultural level in which values of service, hierarchy and tradition are carried out.
No resolutions in Sthal
Somalkar offers no resolutions through Sthal. He portrays the secular, deeply human and quiet radical representation of a young woman who went into the relentless machine of the cultural tradition. Savita dreams of fulfilling her ambitions while anchored in the structure that does not offer her voice and no agency. The actors in the film are mostly new in the scene and give the characters a rawness and authenticity. Nandini Chikte in particular plays Savita with a stressful reality.
The constant, cyclical and natural presentation of the humiliation that is exposed to complaints. A discomfort to recognize the normality that is connected to these everyday customs. Somalkar delivers a deeply moving debut – Cinema, which captures the sharpness and oppression of everyday life and draws attention to practices that have become standard in the name of culture. The film remains in its simplicity and speaks volumes of society that disguises control as a culture.
Reeba Khan is a student of political science at the University of Delhi. As a writer and student journalist, she has a great interest in questions of identity, conflict and belonging. She writes to remember and resist
