Director’s Note

“Jananee” as a film subject hit me for the first time when I was doing a research study which involved surveying Sonography clinics in various parts of the country.

At a personal level, that research helped me realize that most women in India especially in the rural areas, have no rights of their own when it comes to keeping or aborting the feotus. I intend to convey this realization to other people through this film. My character ‘Manda’ represents this typical woman, who lives under the constant fear of being thrown out of the house if she fails to bear a son.

Rima S. Amarapurkar

I also intend to put across the many levels at which a person with a maddening desire for a son can be exploited in India. Shankar, Manda’s husband looses his house to the Money lender only to eventually realize that the abortion was not necessary.

The consistently declining sex ratio at birth in India itself is an evidence that these practices are happening at an increased rate in the country in spite of the legal ban on sex selective abortions. As much as the declining sex ratio is a worry, the more gruesome truth is that this nexus between tradition and technology is killing mothers of today and tomorrow.
- Rima S. Amarapurkar

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