Mandi/ Market Place: film analysis

Mandi is one of Shyam Benegal’s classic, featuring Shabana Azmi as Rukmini Bai, a
madame of a local brothel in a city. The story goes to show how bordellos are criticized
by society and her fight against ejection of the brothel by a businessman Mr Gupta,
social activists and politicians in the name phoney morality. The film shows the story
from the eyes of Rukmini and how she deals with all the hardships thrown at her and
her girls in the bordello.

The film begins with Mr.Gupta purchasing lands in the area and soon buys the brothel
house. The brothel runs well in the city although facing some problems with certain
clients. Rukmini treats her girls well and they live together like a family. Rukmani also
has two special girls, Zeenat a classical singer and Basanti a classical dancer. she sees
her profession as conserving art that flourished in feudal times and her girls as artists.
They would do entertainment for different occasions when requested.

One day, unbeknownst to her, Rukmini buys an underage mute girl called Phoolmani.
when she found out that the new girl was underage and mute and that they were all
duped by Shrikant. She is deeply saddened but she couldn’t let the girl go because she
had paid a substantial amount of money for her. while consoling the new girl She gives
an analogy between the lives of girls in general and a stringless kite. She says, Like a
stringless kite, the life of a woman is not stable and anything can happen to them at any
time. They are pushed wherever the wind blows and are at the mercy of men.she also
adds that men are cheats and untrustworthy as she was cheated upon by her man in
the past whom she loved truly.

When Mr Gupta knew that Rukmini has an underage girl in her brothel. the information
is used strategically against her by collaborating with Shanti Devi, the leader of a
woman organisation Nari Niketan. since Mr Gupta couldn’t drive the girls out without
any reason. He manipulates the news and exploits Shanti Devi to carry out the work.
Soon enough the society knows about it and a protest is led by Shanti Devi. Shanti Devi
rallies outside the brothel and she calls out to hand them the girl and shut down the
brothel. she condemns them and says that it is an immoral profession. she shows no
respect to them whatsoever during the discourse. Shanti Devi is oblivious of being used
as a pawn by Mr Gupta in his business endeavours. She is also exposed to being a
hypocrite and is having an affair with her own son in law. fortunately, The doctor of the
city is sympathetic to the girls. He knows and understands them and even comes for
routine checkups. He also speaks out in a municipal meeting that the girls should be
relocated and paid compensation.
After Shanti Devi confronts Rukmini and asks her to close the brothel in a
condescending way, Rukmini complaints that women are always to blame when its the
men who are the cause of everything. She says that women sell because men buy.
These two scenes show how women are openly oppressed by men at that time and
how uncertain are the lives of women. the girls are being used by men and at the same
time, they are condemned.

One day the mute girl had some complications and almost dies. Another time the girl
tried to commit suicide. This all builds up and soon under the influence of Mr Gupta and
Shanti Devi, the municipal committee kicks them out of the city and relocates them to
the outskirt of the city. Rukmini is at first somewhat pessimistic about the place but
gradually it turns out well, probably with blessings of Baba Karak Shah. Their financial
success goes to show that the brothel is required for the area. Soon once again the
municipal committee and Mr Gupta is at her tail again and wants to relocate the brothel
to another place.

In the middle of the film, the son of politician Agarwal falls in love with Zeenat and as the
story unfolds, their love grows and soon they decide to elope and start a new life. After
a long and arduous search for Zeenat turns out to be futile. Rukmini is devastated and
returns to the bordello. As she mourns and tells the girls how irreplaceable Zeenat is.
She is responded with resentment. The girls unanimously decide to kick Rukmini and
tells her that they can run the brothel on their own. This leads to Rukmini feeling
abandoned and leaves the brothel.

In the film, the brothel house is depicted as a structural component in maintaining the
stability in the society yet they are vilified. The film takes a sympathetic stance on the
brothel and the works that they do. It shows a paradoxical and a hypocritical interaction
between society and the brothel because no matter how much the society condemns
them, they are probably the one who is maintaining stability and order in the society by
keeping the lustful people satiated.few scenes also shows how girls have to deal with
lascivious people barging in the place occasionally. They had to call the police many
times. Plus the men of the place doesn’t respect a woman’s privacy. They just enter
whenever they want even when the girl is not working. Om puri acting as the
photographer would take photographs without consent. Even when kicked out by
Rukmini, the son of Mr Agarwal, Sushil would climb up to Zeenat’s room. Many of such
acts wouldn’t fly by these days.
The main plot is about how they struggle with the society that turned against them. They
see their sex work as just another type of profession, her two special girls as artists and
that their work may be even moral because their work is like social service and without
them, there would be chaos in the city. This is shown in the scene where Mr Gupta
when he goes to Rukmini to talk about vacating the house, she responds why they are
being ill-treated although that they clean filths of the city, take care of men’s loneliness
and boredom and give shelter to homeless girls and that because of them, human
relations are still there.

In contrast, the society although reaping the full benefits of the brothel but still sees their
work as immoral and detrimental to society and should be moved away from the city.
They are driven out by businessmen, Politicians and activist who consider themselves
moral and respected by society want to remove them. It seems that their main
motivation is business and taking over the city area and not being morality police.

The movie also shows how the girls are first brought up to the brothel and how they are
held there against the girl’s will. This is shown in the new girl constantly trying to run
away and at one time trying to kill herself. Maybe other girls over there might have gone
through the same but soon accepted their fate. The girls although taking care of each
other like sisters when the time is hard like that everyone is on their own.

In conclusion, the story casts an inside story of such brothel houses and how such
places are condemned and the girls in there as immoral and having no other skills than
sex work. Their humanity is compromised by the same people who benefit from their
work.

Submitted by: Tenzin Soepa

M.A. philosophy final year
IDC psychology course