रुदाली (1993) : distribution, intrigue et streaming

Released in 1993, रुदाली is a drame film directed by Kalpana Lajmi, running about 128 minutes.

What it’s about. Shanichari is a beautiful girl born in lower cast and her life is full of sufferings because of lower cast, poor finances, lost parents, drunken husband, mischievous son. The title refers to a custom in some parts of Rajasthan—where aristocratic women were long kept secluded and veiled—of hiring professional women mourners on the death of a male relative, a rudaali (pronounced “roo-dah-lee”—literally, a female “weeper”) to publicly express the grief that family members, constrained by their high social status, were not permitted to display—or at times, perhaps did not feel. Underwritten by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Doordarshan (Indian national television) and based on a short story by famed Bengali author Mahasweta Devi—whose tales often focus on the travails of low-caste women.

Who’s in it. रुदाली stars Dimple Kapadia as Shanichari, Rakhee Gulzar as Bhikni, Raj Babbar as Thakur and Raghubir Yadav as Budhwa, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.2/10, रुदाली has proved divisive with audiences.

Where to watch. In Inde you can stream it on JioHotstar, EPIC ON, VI movies and tv and NFDC Amazon Channel. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch रुदाली page.

If you liked it. Fans of रुदाली tend to enjoy Les Évadés, Le Parrain, La Liste de Schindler and Le Parrain, 2e partie.