Moksha 1993

Directed by Pankaj Butalia

Abandoned by their families to lives of penury, marked by white veils which they wear, Bengali widows find solace and food in the ashrams of Vrindavan where they gather every morning and evening to sing religious songs. In this profoundly moving documentary on widowhood portrayed both as social institution and personal tradition, moments of astonishing sensuous beauty alternate with rhythms of anguish. In the best of the new ethnographic tradition, ‘Moksha’ de-centres the voices of authority and allows a plurality of voices to introduce contesting positions. Haunting in it_s evocation of grief and anger, the film transcends documentary and assumes it_s place in the great tradition of lamentation, the expression of the dark night of the human soul.