A white rainbow

Who has the right to strip off the jewelry and forbid the widows, the unfortunate victims of circumstances, from wearing bindi and colored clothes? Is the ancient custom responsible for marking these victims as 'inauspicious' or the blind followers of certain dogmas? Why are these individuals refrained from attending various occasions? Just because a female lost her husband, does that mean that she should keep a full stop to her happiness? The heartbreaking fact is that this scenario prevails even in this century. Is it believable that there exists a place full of ostracized widows? Vrindavan, the land of lord Krishna, is popularly known as the land of widows.

White rainbow, the film by Dharan Mandrayar, handles this social problem in detail. Dharan describes Vrindavan as the place deprived of happiness and colors.

“ Na koi kushi…
Na koi rang…
Sirf safedh our dukh……….”


The movie moves around four widows, the dynamic Priya, the senile Roop, the disfigured Mala and sexually exploited Deepti. Upon learning of her husband’s sudden death, Priya miscarries her baby; her tragedy compels her to move to Vrindavan where she meets Roop, Mala and Deepti. On seeing the way the widows are treated, she attempts to bring in some change in the lives of these socially deprived women. And, in the process, their transformation takes hold.

Having this as the theme, the movie unveils various hardships faced by the widows and the abysmal life they lead. For instance a visual in which an old woman sitting outside the stinking gents’ loo for just pouring water mars our heart saying that this is the reality. Issues like Sexual exploitation, physical brutality, social inauspiciousness etc were also handled appropriately. Finally the movie ends with the belief that the society will accept these women. In a nutshell, this is the movie to instigate some thought about the deprived widows in the minds of the people.

- Diwakar

Facts: (source-Hindustan Times)
- According to the 1991 census there were 33 million widows in India
- In the age group over 60 years, 64% widows have a pension of only Rs 100-500
- There are around 16,000 widows in Vrindavan alone.