Goddesses
Synopsis
Goddesses is the story of three ordinary women who live extraordinary lives surviving darkest of times and going against society's norms to live and work according to the rules they have set for themselves.Lakshmi, a professional 'funeral singer': she visits death houses with a troop of drummers and for a measly pay, she wails and laments and shares the grief of the other mourners. The throb of the drums and her ankle bells resonate in the house long after she has left.Krishnaveni, the ‘grave-digger’: dead unknown earns her the daily meal. Veni accepts unclaimed bodies from the local Police and gives them a decent burial or cremation, digging and maintaining the graves herself. Sethuraku, the ‘fisherwoman’: “what is normally considered taboo for women?” is confidently done by this lady. She goes out to sea every morning with a few fellow fisherwomen to collect fish and prawns, singing to welcome the day.
Citation
The young filmmaker, Leena Manimekalai, is faced with three old material goddesses who for different reasons find themselves naturally emancipated from Tamil tradition and orthodoxy. Leena creates for Goddesses a trusting filming arena that was never manipulative so that the three women opened up and revealed their total strength and power bordering on the archetype. They emerged free, master of the very tradition that had earlier kept them shackled.