GODDESSES (DHEVATHAIGAL)

Cast out and left alone, three remarkable women defy the norms of Indian society. Lakshmi is a professional 'funeral singer'. For a small fee she sings elegies, laments the dead and shares in the grief of the bereaved. Her husband used to come home drunk and beat her. She decided she would rather die than stay with him, so now she copes with her life alone. It is a similar story for Sethuraku. She earns her money as a 'fisherwoman'. It is a real man's job, which is normally considered taboo for Indian women, but every day she goes out to sea with a few fellow fisherwomen, singing to welcome the day. Her job is full of dangers but it is her only source of life. Krishnaveni also has an unusual profession: she has been earning her crust burying unclaimed corpses since the death of her husband. In revealing images the director Leena Manimekalai illustrates the extraordinary lives of three ordinary Indian women who have taken their grim fate into their own hands.