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VRINDABAN, INDIA, March 25, 2004: A film on the plight of widows, reportedly starring Raveena Tandon, has local religious leaders up in arms. While American-Indians Linda and Dharan Mandrayar, and Hannah Kirby of San Diego, California, hope the world will see, care about and act on the film titled “White Rainbow,” the pandas (priests) of Vrindavan are opposed, according to this report at sify.com.



According to previously published reports, the subject first caught Dharan’s attention when his son read a novel about a 13-year-old widow banished to Vrindavan. The filmmaker, whose own mother was never mistreated as a widow, didn’t quite believe all that he read. However after visiting Vrindavan and ascertaining the truth for himself, he knew he had to act. “I saw widows in really miserable conditions,” he said. “There’s no joy in their singing. They’re real mournful. They were in poor health and not well kept. Everything we read and heard about seemed to be true in worse ways than we imagined,” Dharan was quoted as saying in the San Diego Union Tribune.



“These foreigners mint money by displaying the weaknesses of our society. While I agree that all is not well in Vrindavan, that doesn’t mean we will hold it up for the world to see. After all filmmakers have no other intention than to exploit the traditional ills in this country and sell it abroad. If they are really concerned about the condition of the widows, let them do something to restore them to a life of dignity and honor. Making films is hardly going to solve the problem,” says Jai Kant Shashtri, a priest.



HPI adds: The filmmakers could instead do a documentary on the plight of Mexican migrant workers right near San Deigo, where they could find people living in similar “miserable conditions.” It is true, as the priest says, that money is to be made “exploiting the traditional ills” of India, while ignoring like conditions in rich countries.

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