Friday, April 17, 2015

An unusual story

Sirai in Tamil by Anuradha Ramanan. It was made into 1984 Tamil film Sirai, and as Siksha in Telugu 1985. It is the story of a village priest Raghupaty's wife, raped by a landlord Antony, then abandoned by her husband, confronts the rapist, lives in his house for thirty years without any physical relations with him, though known as Antony's woman in the village. But regard for each other develops during the period. The only physical contacts is when the Antony was about to die. After Antony's death, the priest who came to know of the facts of her life in Antony's house comes to her and requests her to come back. She rejects him saying that she would rather be known as Antony's widow than go back to the man who rejected her and throws away her mangalasutra which falls on Antony's rifle.
There is a long article 'Life after rape' on the story by Rajeswari Sunder Rajan "Real and Imagined women: ender, Culture and Post Colonialism" which is also available in "Borderwork: Feminist engagements with Comparative Literature".

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