Dadi's Family
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Dadi is the grandmother and mother-in-law, or as she explains, the "manager" of an extended family in the Haryana region of Northern India, where women leave their natal villages and come as strangers to the households of their husband's mothers

This film explores such a family and it's problems, particularly through the eyes of the women of Dadi's family. They speak about inherent tensions created by the authority of Dadi, the loneliness of being veiled daughters-in-law who always remain outsiders, and their husbands' expectations that wives will labor in the fields, fetch water and cow dung, and somehow still have food and water waiting at home.

Beyond the internal tensions, social and economic changes outside the village also threaten the stability and cohesion of the family. Dadi's third son, for example, marries a teacher in the city and Dadi frets that he will no longer contribute financially to the farm, leaving all the family wealth to be subdivided.

In the family, says Dadi, "We can bear anything because we all suffer together."

Yet it is clear that her children's generation is already ambivalent about life on the farm, and a daughter-in-law speaks of her wish for her own children to “leave the village and its dirt”. Dadi herself is keenly aware of these processes: "Doesn't everything change?" she asks.

Michael Camerini, Producer/Director/Cinematographer

National PBS broadcast as part of the series, ODYSSEY.

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