Since I was a kid, I have seen families claim that their young adult daughter was disturbed, unwell or possessed by an evil spirit, and forcefully took her to a shaman. Some girls came back a completely different person, traumatized by what they were forced to go through, and some girls didn’t return at all.
As I grew up, I learned that when a daughter was in a relationship with a boy from an oppressed caste, family members felt ashamed of her. They believed that the boy cast black magic inside her, and felt that only the shaman could help bring their daughter back to normal. The shaman would erase all the memories she had of her lover by doing rituals and touching her body inappropriately until she forgot his face. This practice is called “Mugamaathu” which means “erasing his face”.
After finishing my first film, KOOZHANGAL, I was shocked that my sister’s daughter was taken to a shaman. When I visited her, I saw her trembling in the corner of the room, unable to coherently say anything. She was so traumatized by the family and shaman performing cruel acts against her will that she couldn’t sleep for days. The fear in her eyes disturbed me. As a filmmaker, I thought that I should share her experience with the world.
I visited many shamans performing magical tricks in the name of healing girls, but the reality was that these girls were being abused. I spoke to families who believed in black magic and those who conducted honour killings in the name of caste pride. I was frightened by all the people, the shamans, and the rituals I witnessed. A lot of girls were experiencing what my sister’s daughter had gone through. That’s when I understood this was happening all over India under different names. This journey instigated me to make this film, KOTTUKKAALI.
PS Vinothraj
