Moved for a cause

Director Prabhakar Shukla gives Gudiya a voice


Is law above humans or are humans above the law,” it is this essential debate that instigated Prabhakar Shukla to make Kahaani Gudiya Ki. The movie revolves around the story of Gudiya. She was first married to an Army jawan, Arif. He left for the Kargil war. Four years later when he was deemed a deserter Gudiya married her cousin Taufiq. Two years after this marriage Arif returned. Gudiya was forced to go to him.

Tragedy exploited

This sad and personal story became fodder for the media in 2004. Her fate was decided by the interpretation of Muslim laws. Her life was degraded into entertainment for others. Denied all choice, she became her name.

Through his movie, Shukla tries to give a voice to Gudiya. “The whole movie is from her point of view,” director Shukla says. While he never met her in person, his creative team travelled to her village in Haryana. It is through the recordings of those meetings that he reconstructs her. Pregnant with Taufiq’s child, Gudiya wanted to return to him. She never stated it visibly. She could only say, “Kya hum gai, bakri hai, ki ek khoonte se doosre khoonte se bandh de?” Shukla explains, “She suppressed all her emotions for society. This movie is a tribute to her.”

Gudiya died in 2006 of multiple organ failure, leaving behind a son, who is being shunted between relatives today. Shukla hopes that he can do something for him. Her death forced changes in the script. Ten scenes had to be re-shot. While the original the movie was to end with the panchayat scene, it now closes with her death. Shukla feels that it was her broken spirit that killed her.

Only the promos have hit the screen yet opposition has already started. Shukla gets 20 to 30 threats on his phone every day. The All India Minority Conference wants to ban the movie. Arif, the first husband, has also raised a stir. Shukla recounts with a laugh reading a banner headline on his movie, “Muslim ko badnam karne ki ek filmy sazish”! Shukla is quick to assert that he’s not placed any caste or religion in a bad light. Believing that films mirror society, he simply feels that it’s his fundamental right to show the truth.

The movie has been cleared without any cuts and has got a Universal Certificate from the Censor Board. It has already travelled to festivals in Goa, Kerala and Bangalore. Despite the threats and controversy, he is now determined to show it to the public, “even on video if it has to be”.