Maya (I) (2001) User Reviews

Tension slowly builds to a brutal climax that is genuinely shocking

[Tongilulu · 8/10 · 18 November 2002]

The story unfolds slowly - maybe a little too slowly - but overall is beautifully told. Two cousins - a boy and girl - are caught up in a ritual triggered when the girl starts to menstruate. The brutal climax of the ritual is genuinely shocking. The girl, Maya, is raped by holy men. This is part of the ritual, and guests feast outside the temple while it's happening. The adults in the story see such rapes as rites of passage and celebrations of family prestige.

Perhaps characters and attitudes are too black and white; metaphors are a bit heavyhanded; and there is little nuance, but this film has considerable qualities too - not least that it tackles an important and current issue - and does it well.

Beautiful cinematography contrast important message

[lexibear21 · 7/10 · 11 February 2005]

The first thing that struck me about the film "Maya" was the beautiful cinematography. Sweeping shots of the Indian landscape, touching moments between children and family, brilliant colors, close-up's of lizards (I'm guessing they mean something in Indian culture that I am not aware of.): all these contributed to the overall aesthetic appeal of the film. However, the visual beauty of the film provided a stark contrast to the actual message behind the images. This movie is about brutal religious practices still affecting young girls in some parts of India. The serenity of the majority of the film provides a stark contrast with the dark message beneath. This film not only raises awareness of these brutal practices but does so in the most effective of ways. "Maya" provides an extremely important message, and it also is an achievement in cinematic production. I thought this film was extremely well done, and it has taught me even more about practices such as these that still exist in a world outside mine.

eye opener

[crony_mav · 6/10 · 16 May 2006]

I love to watch documentaries as against pure commercial flicks and so I picked up this movie. Mita Vashisht,Ananth nag and the kids have put in a brilliant performance. The first part of the movie really kept me guessing what the story was all about.I thought it was really generous of the couple to bring up Maya as their own kid.The pranks played by the children did remind me at times of the fun we had as kids.Other than that there was nothing special really. As the story progressed about the girls first period I thought they would show just another ritual performed in some parts of our country. What was shocking was it was more than just a ritual........a brutal rape and child abuse still prevalent in our country, which I thought never existed.In the name of religion people are encouraging the wrong practices.Maya should be an eye opener to the educated section of our society who can create more awareness amongst the superstitious and orthodox community.

Beautiful and shocking

[rpersad · 10/10 · 20 October 2002]

This movie is really split in two. The first half is the "innocent kids enjoying their youth" section, and the other half is the "holy samosoa! Did they just do what I think they just did?" section.

The first half I thouroughly enjoyed cause it reminded me of when I was a lil boy growing up in Trinidad, and Toronto. The beautiful cinematography, and bright sunshiney, summerey, goodness, made me feel feel like I really was 12 years old again.

The second half is totaly different, as MAYA has her innocence taken, by way of a (horrible) traditional comming-of-age tradition. The movie gets dark in a hurry, and the sunshiney goodness, is replaced with the hard realities of life.

Overal, this movie made me think of two main things:

1- Being a kid was soooo much frackin fun. Growing up sucks.

2- Religion is a dangerous thing.

7.5/10

heart wrenching

[joycekpaul · 10/10 · 7 February 2006]

Brilliant and heart-wrenching.

If you are an Indian born post-independence like me, this is a must to watch.

My heart just broke into a thousand pieces and something core to my existence died.

To think that this must still be happening in some remote corner of India is even more disgusting.

The biggest paradox that I cannot yet deal with is that a pristine form of art like Bharatanatyam or Sadir coexisted intensely intertwined with a similar age old system.

What A FILM!

[Kate_Pafford · 10/10 · 18 September 2006]

Having many friends who are Indian, I have been to quite a few Prayer Ceremonies. Neha, a friend of mine had told me of the ceremony her mother, Chitra, had had back in India, but I never really thought it was more than a rare occurrence. But Neha told me about a film she had watched with her family, that had caused her usually stone faced, never show emotion in front the children mother, Chitra to leave the room. After hearing that Chitra had cried due to the film, and after watching the film, I now understand what Chitra's life must have been like. I give this film 10 stars for showing how after the Ceremony, Maya's forever changed, and all the grown-ups baby her, and tell her that everything's OK, that everything is fine, and Sanjay, her cousin is willing to insult His Holiness, and take the wrath of his father. This movie once again shows us how different a world India is, and any other country. I thought this movie was a coming-of-age film, but it takes us into the world of what a person will do into the name of "GOD". This is a film that needs to be seen, especially by people who don't understand Hindi, Punjabi traditions. I'm just glad that this film is out there for people to see, to make them angry. Well done Digvijay Singh, and Emmanuel Pappas for making this incredible film.

Human tragedy

[Herr Nosferatu · 10 January 2003]

Digvijay Singh's tragic observation of life in secluded India is both invigorating, in the sense that life, and its people seem to care only for the simple things that make them happy, and it is above all savagely tragic, in ways that certain rites and traditions are not or should not exist in the first place.

The tragedy is amplified quite masterfully by the approach of the little girl's life. The film centers around her innocent childly activities and her simple (yet perhaps quite harsh) life in a poor under developped area of India. Unfortunately, fate would have it that the child must grow and become aware of certain aspects of life which simply can't be understood nor accepted.

This film is a prime example of how I see tragedy. To fully implement a strong sense of tragic, one needs to build it around simple minded genuine calmness. I found the film perfect in this aspect.

Unrealistic, manipulative and offensive

[rdubey · 2/10 · 9 August 2010]

I was totally stunned by the movie. The story is so unrealistic and it seems that it was made to cater to that section of western audience who want to see and believe that a lot of shady rituals go on in the "mysterious" Indian culture. To prove my point I will like to rationally explain a few things. I will first of all ask anyone really interested to go ahead and watch this movie and then think about the following points. 1) In India, which is a very conservative country, the virginity of a girl in highly valued. So can you believe that parents themselves would ask a priest to rape their child daughter? The answer is No. Having said that some rare cases of child abuse do take place but to depict by a movie that these rituals are a norm in India is totally false and offensive. 2) To make the western audience understand this point I will like them to suppose that a movie is made about child abuse in church where it is shown that the parents themselves take their child to a priest and request him to rape their child. How appalled and offended would you feel after seeing such a movie? Although child abuse in church is not that rare but do you think it would justify making such a stupid movie.

I am from India and know the culture over there very well and I am appalled to see that many people find this movie to be an "eyeopener and awesome". In my opinion this is a very manipulative movie. In-spite of having wonderful actors and good cinematography the story of the movie is downright irrational and offensive to a person who knows the Indian values and the truth.

Inauthentic, and slanderous

[naturesmelody · 1/10 · 29 July 2018]

Though the movie itself was made beautifully and had a good message, it was completely misrepresenting any ritual that goes on in India. There is no such practice like the horrific one depicted with Maya and the preists and it creates a very negative association in peoples minds who watch it and may not know otherwise. It was so traumatic to me that even 16 years later the imagery from this film haunt me. I think before misrepresenting a ritual or practice in a videoa disclaimer needs to be made to say that the content in the film are not based on real rituals or practices. Otherwise it creates an impression harmful to certain cultures, traditions and religions that are already in question and scrutiny by Western minds especially and movies like this drive a nail in to support misinformed ideas or ignorance. I would like to see more movies that dispell doubt and negative ideas about traditional practices and bring their rich foundation of wisdom beauty to light instead of some shoddy sensationalization to appeal to the craving of shock factor in Western minds. There are plenty of Hollywood action movies and horror movies created for that purpose. That said, of course it is good to shed light on the real atrocities happening in India even in name of religion, but then it should be depicted accurately and as a documentary. I feel that until a disclaimer is strongly made at the beginning and end of this movie, it should be banned.

seemlingly light film about heavy subject

[lynxxx · 25 January 2002]

I saw Maya yesterday at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. A young girl lives with her uncle and aunt, two well-respected people in a small village. Maya lives happily and spends her days playing with her nephew Sanjun. One day her first menstruation starts and the family travel to the village of her mother to celebrate the fact that she has become a grown-up woman.

The film starts with the text "based on true practises". Despite the radiance and loveliness of the movie, this line sticks with you, preparing you for an unavoidable climax in which things are not as pleasant as they seem.

Maya is a movie with an absolutely incredible scenery and cinematography. Beautiful Landscapes and sunsets create an almost serene silence in between the various scenes. Lighting and color are excellent and create an environment in which you can feel the warm climate. Scenes, sometimes slow but never boring, are kept light with subtle but effective humourous moments.

I found Maya a refreshing and overall quite light movie that deals with a heavy subject, revealed towards the end of the film. Just the crisp image, vivid colors and stunning soundtrack alone already make this movie worth watching. However, its subtle screenplay,gradually revealing a shocking truth is what really makes Maya a small gem.

The Nature of Reality

[valis1949 · 5/10 · 24 March 2012]

MAYA (dir. Digvijay Singh) This film is an attempt to draw attention to a supposed violent and exploitative practice against young Hindu women, however, the film does little to authenticate the reality of this threat. We watch as a happy young girl from rural India becomes a young woman, and is then subjected to a religious ritual in which she is gang raped by the priests of the temple. This seems to be condoned by the family and sanctioned by the community, yet It is not clear when this supposedly took place (anywhere from the 1950's to the present), or if there is any actual scriptural basis for this particularly grotesque rite. If this is a true depiction of an authentic Hindu ceremony, I would like to see proof. The film reminded me of the ancient belief that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.

Caution : such Pooja is not practiced in hinduism

[Sexy-scientist · 1/10 · 30 October 2014]

This movie is based on a topic which does not exists and presented as if it is a documentary, even the first slide presented reads "based on true practices", but the movie doesn't name the practice and refer it as "pooja". This movie presents very dirty image of India and Hinduism, plus it was premiered in the new york which makes people more vulnerable to get exposed to this movie and get affected by it. Has this movie not passed from under the nose of censor board of India? Because I don't think they can let such movie release plus I didn't see a certificate before the start of the film. Such movie should be banned.

shocking film

[kawadjan · 25 August 2003]

i saw this film recently at the cinemanila international film festival not knowing what to expect.

i went out of the theater truly shocked and repulsed, not by the film, but what it showed. the only thing that i kept on saying to my self was "i hope what the film showed was not true".

Please Don't See This Movie!

[JunglistTatsuya · 1/10 · 30 September 2005]

I picked up this movie and was horrified to find out that the movie is based on a rape of a little girl that the parents knowingly take their daughter to. My first thoughts were that I have never been more ashamed to be an Indian as well as a Hindu. I found this movie to be down right appalling. Please don't waste your time. As for the music, there are at most 2 horrible songs and the film used is cheap. The beautiful scenes are not what India is known for. I just hope that I have shed some light on how disgusting this movie really is. Yes it may highlight how evil people in power especially when it comes to religion may be, but to sit down and watch almost 2 hours of this movie can make almost anyone gag. If your up for a good Indian movie watch something by director Mira Nair.

Terrible!!!!!

[[e-mail] · 7 August 2003]

I saw this movie late at night and saw it was about indian customs so i thought i'd watch it to see the beautiful clothes. what a shock i got!!! This movie, especially th graphic rape scene, stayed in my mind for ages!! i understand that this movie was meant to show the horrible ritual that girls have to go through. and its graphic to stick in peoples minds so there can do something about it. But did they have to be SO graphic? i know there is more graphic movies about rape out there, but this is a poor inocent 12 year old girl! Unfortuantly the channel which showed the movie put in on two times in a short pireod and is putting it on again for a third time next week. this movie may be sad but it defernaty makes you thinkZ!