Prachee Bajania’s film Gujarati-language non-feature short film The Spell of Purple is being screened at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The film tells the story of Inaas, the sole owner of a small field in tribal Gujarat, who is the target of envious neighbours who brand her a witch. Enveloped in fear, she looks for strength in other women – a new mother dealing with loneliness and a young married woman forced to reckon with turmoil of her own. The Mahua forest bears silent witness to their secret conversations, sometimes reaching out through ancient folk songs. The film captures the weariness that often lies behind such women’s daily courage.
Speaking about the film, Bajania said that the idea came to her when she was travelling through the forests of Ambi Dumala. She searched for the source of a folk song that she heard for just 10 seconds in the forest, which led to the film.
Bajania said, “The movie celebrates the courage but also speaks about weariness faced by them due to constant harassment.” Thousands of women are labelled as witches with ulterior motives to grab property or to trouble them, and this movie tells the story of the fight of these women against forces of patriarchy in a small field in tribal Gujarat, the director explained. She added that many of the attempts to label women as witches are with the intention of grabbing their property or sexually harassing them.
While speaking about the inspiration behind the title of the film, Bajania said that the colour purple is associated with magic and mysticism and she wanted to use this colour to talk about the theme of the film. The original title of the movie in Gujarati is Khilshe Toh Khara (They will bloom) signifying that women will bloom despite all the odds.
The director of photography, Rajesh Amara Rajan, editor Srujana Adusumalli, sound designer Jikku Joshi and production designer Shikha Bisht also interacted with the media.
The film was shown at the Indian Panorama Non-Feature Film section at IFFI and was a graduation film made at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.