Movie ‘Laadli’ on female infanticide screened

A movie based on female infanticide ‘Laadli’ was screened at Madhya Pradesh State Tribal Museum. The movie was screened here on Thursday at the museum under its regular series of children film screening ‘Ullas’.

Directed by Mazahir Rahim, the movie surrounds the life of a young girl Roshni. 12 year old Roshni is left an orphan after a cyclone. She takes shelter in a refugee home. Coming to know of her plight her childless uncle and aunt take her with them.

They live in a village in the interiors of Rajasthan which practices female infanticide. Not a single girl child has been allowed to survive in the past 80 years. Roshni’s optimism and vivacity surprise the villagers, exposing their fallacy of considering the male child superior than a girl. But can a lone girl change prejudice and faulty tradition of centuries?

In a nation where female infanticide is still practiced, Laadli exposes one of male-dominated society’s most inhuman practices in an endearing manner.

It is to be noted that Mazahir Rahim is an FTII direction alumnus. He trained in the Czech Republic for multi-screen film projects. Rahim started his career as Chief Assistant to H S Rawail in the hit ‘Laila Majnu’. He wrote and directed over 40 documentaries for the Films Division and won two National Awards for ‘New Images’ and ‘Mughal Garden’. He was also part of the directorial team for Sanjay Khan’s epic TV series ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan’ and ‘Parivaar’, a 30 episode series for Doordarshan.