FABLES OF BIRTH a Documentary by Anuj Saxena’s Maverick Production

Sahana Bhattacharya has already been awarded “Brouillion d’un reve” by SCAM (Civil Society of Authors and Multimedia of France) as one of the best projects of the year 2004 titled “Naitre sur un sol d’argile”, and now she completes a labour of love which has taken 7 years of her life. Titled “FABLES OF BIRTH”, a documentary that is produced and presented by Anuj Saxena’s Maverick Productions, it is a story about the mid wives of India and these documentary traces the lives of two such mid wives in the village of Hessady in West Bengal. It is a poignant tale about the art of mid wives, which is a prevalent part of the rural life in India and this documentary, follows these two women as they go about through their daily chores.

(PRWEB) June 21, 2006 -- SCAM (Civil Society of Authors and Multimedia of France) as one of the best projects of the year 2004 titled “Naitre sur un sol d’argile”, and now she completes a labour of love which has taken 7 years of her life. Titled “FABLES OF BIRTH”, a documentary that is produced and presented by Anuj Saxena’s Maverick Productions, it is a story about the mid wives of India and these documentary traces the lives of two such mid wives in the village of Hessady in West Bengal. It is a poignant tale about the art of mid wives, which is a prevalent part of the rural life in India and this documentary, follows these two women as they go about through their daily chores.

Says Anuj on his reason for presenting this documentary “As a producer and also because I have a production House, I am always on the look out for interesting and good subjects. This was an excellent subject for us to present ourselves as a serious documentary filmmaker and the subject appealed to me both as a producer and as a viewer. Documentaries especially ones like this, have a huge scope internationally and our aim through this documentary feature and future ones will be to project ourselves as serious people in this business. We will be presenting ‘FABLES OF BIRTH…’ at major International festivals and exhibitions, starting with the major documentary Exhibition/Festival ‘Sunny Side of the Doc’ in France in the end of June 2006”.

Says the director Sahana Bhattacharya “My instinct for research coupled with a fascination for subaltern lifestyle prompted me to go to the interiors in the district of Purulia, where a large tribal population of Santhals reside. I stayed with the community for months on end during my tips from France to India and closely interacted with the midwives of Hessady. Having established a comfort zone, I took my shooting crew to the villages. The tribal folk, skeptical of civilized people and their “mean machines’ opened up with spontaneity and allowed the camera crew to take an intimate peep into their lives”.

Maverick Productions was incorporated in March 2005 and in the last 15 months it has already produced more than 20 advertising films and one game show called “KHILADI NO. 1’ on Zee Smile, and it is now currently producing pilots for shows to go on air very soon. It also plans to produce feature films and expects its first film to be announced and to on floor during the last quarter of this financial year.

Synopsis of the documentary Fables of Birth…

There are about 500,000 villages in India where the large majority of the population is concentrated. In most of these villages, the manually operated water pumps that are supposed to be the primary source of drinking water look like relics from the past; the electric poles bring in local election votes but rarely light, and the medical dispensaries that are rare to find are not places frequented by reputed doctors.

In these villages, women usually deliver at home without the aid of proper medical care helped only by a traditional midwife known as a “Dai”. Known as the “Untouchables”, the Dais belong to the lowest caste of the Hindu society.

There are literally thousands of caste groups in India, who are arranged in a specific order that is in accordance to their alleged level of purity. These social groups tend to organize, control and design everyday life by laying down multiple prohibitions for their member castes: no need to plan for marriage outside one’s own caste, do not accept food from someone of a lower caste…Each caste traditionally corresponds to a specific profession. Atop the social ladder sits the Brahmins, considered to posses the highest degree of purity, who are usually priests or professors. Placed at the bottom end of the social ladder are the Untouchables, the impure, the scorned, those who mainly engage in sewage work or are barbers, cobblers and midwives…

In Hinduism, birth is fundamentally considered to be an impure event. Everything that is related to the biological roots of a human being is considered to be impure, especially when it concerns women. In that, periods, amniotic liquid, and placenta are regarded to be the things that posses the highest degree of impurity in a woman. Hence, a woman during her periods or just after the completion of her delivery is considered to exist in a state of impurity and the people around or those who are her close circles consider this state dangerous.

Midwives, as they work in constant touch with such substances, are seen as existing in a perennial state of impurity by the other castes. Nevertheless, they are absolutely indispensable: an untouchable has to deliver a Brahmins child in order to preserve the purity of the ritual by taking upon her, the stains and impurity of the delivery.

These days, the “Dais”, possessing a traditional knowledge, pass on that knowledge from generation to generation: the knowledge consists of the ability to interpret symptoms that are indicative of the onset of labor pains and they can predict from apparent signs as to whether the delivery would be an easy or a difficult one. The Dais posses the knowledge that consists of maneuvers which would assist in a delivery done by squatting, the post delivery care for the mother and the infant, and medicinal concoctions that could facilitate in the birth of a male child or aid in abortion.

However, such practices have nothing in common with the world of Western medicine with which they have an ambiguous relationship. On one hand, they are aware of their limits as a result of the frequency of complications and desire an easier access to the hospital. However, they also detest the arrogance of the doctors, which they perceive as an obvious sign of incompetence. Besides, many women prefer to deliver at home as they are afraid of going to hospitals for financial reasons or because they dread the isolation of a medical environment that is perceived as being hostile.

Among those born as “Dais”, the practice of the profession is passed on from mother to daughter and on the face of it; there exists no other choice for them with regards to an alternative livelihood. However, in the last few years, the literacy levels are on a steady rise in these villages and the girls now have access to education that give them hope of an escape from the destiny of being a “Dai”.

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