Rudaali (1993)

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 Rajasthanwhere aristocratic women were long kept secluded and veiledof hiring professional women mourners on the death of a male relative, a rudaali (pronounced roo-dah-leeliterally, a female weeper) to publicly express the grief that family members, constrained by their high social status, were not permitted to displayor 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 Deviwhose tales often focus on the travails of low-caste women.