Bandhua (Bonded)
India
2022
57 min
Santosh works as a bonded labourer for a rich farmer in Satwas township of Madhya Pradesh in central India’s remote hinterlands. Santosh belongs to a tribal community exploited by a rich and powerful agrarian community. The film documents how his wife, with the help of her self-help group, plans to free her husband from the usurious farmer moneylender. The film examines everyday events in the life of a bonded labourer and reveals how exploitation is normalized.
Original Language
Hindi/ Nimadi
Direction
Shobhit Jain
Camera
Rabindra Kumar Barik
Editing
Iqbal Hussain
Sound
Sandip Bhati/ Iqbal Hussain/ Aajad Singh Khichi
Script
N/A
Producer
Pinky Brahma Choudhury
About the filmmaker.
Shobhit Jain is the founder and director of SPS Community Media, an interactive filmmaking initiative that partners with communities in central Indian villages. He has mentored filmmakers and produced over 200 films on social issues in collaboration with India’s Films Division and Doordarshan. The initiative’s films are primarily shared with a community spread across 500 villages in central India through People’s Mobile Cinema. Many have also been screened at over 45 international film festivals including the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, the Mumbai International Film Festival, the Dharamshala International Film Festival, the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival,the South Asian Short Film Festival, the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, the South Asian Short Film Festival, and the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. They have won 17 national and international awards. Jain is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India.