Lubna Yusuf was fresh out of law school when she decided to make a documentary on how all the laws and government measures to empower and protect the girl child are playing out on the ground. She chose Ujaala, an eight-year-old girl from a village at Champaran in Bihar, nicknamed Maida, as her subject. Over the next eight years, with the shooting happening once in two years or so, she followed her journey.
It is the kind of idea that filmmaker Richard Linklater has executed before, most notably in Boyhood, filmed over 12 years. Only that, Lubna’s film Maida, screened at the competition section at the 12th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, is all too real. The way it ends, with a still minor Maida having a child on her lap, and hiding her face under a veil, raises important questions about how in India’s most backward villages, the lack of awareness of the laws or the opportunities available, remains a stumbling block for women.
Visible changes
The documentary begins following Maida when she is a happy school-going girl. She is seen speaking and singing on camera, without any inhibition. But, the changes are visible in the footage from two years later, when she is much reluctant to speak on the camera. She smiles less too.
On Lubna’s third visit two years later, Maida’s family did not allow her to meet her. Her phone and belongings too “mysteriously” went missing. She was to realise later that Maida had dropped out of school on attaining puberty and was married off.
A regular practice
“I really feel bad about what happened, that I was unable to stop this from happening. When I approached the authorities later, they said that nothing can be done as such early marriages are the culture in these parts and that she already has a child. Even, she was not aware of her rights and had been taught to have no ambition on her own. When I met her the final time, with her child, she was happy and sorted out. She even gladly showed her new saree. I am afraid whether the same cycle will repeat with her own daughter,” says Ms. Lubna.
She says that the governments, along with implementing measures to promote girls’ education, should do more to create awareness among the parents too, for real change to happen.