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Online May 2 - 4

Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Indie Meme Special 10th Year
Retrospective Showcase

Sthal (A Match)

India | Narrative Feature

2023 | 104 mins | Marathi

Limited tickets available on site.

Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival 2024 (Best Film, Best Actress)
Third Eye Asian Film Festival 2024 (Best Film, Best Actress)
Pune International Film Festival 2024 (Sant Tukaram Award - Best Marathi Film, Best Screenplay)

In a village in the Vidarbha region of India, a determined young girl, Savita, yearns for

education and a brighter future. However, as her farmer parents anxiously struggle to find a suitable match for her, societal expectations place immense pressure on her to prioritize marriage over personal aspirations.

Being dark-complexioned and short in height, Savita is seen as an added ‘burden’ on her parents and ‘marrying her off’, as difficult as finding fair price for their crop. Facing countless rejections from potential suitors, she must navigate a world where the pursuit of marriage overshadows the very sustenance of life.

Shot on real locations with real people from the village, all non-actors, Sthal (A Match) is the director's debut feature film that explores the tradition of arranged marriages in rural India while highlighting patriarchy, colorism and social evil deeply rooted in society.

Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.

Restoration Process

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing.

Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram.

Meet Specific Thing

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About the Artist

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Photo courtesy: 

Film Heritage Foundation

Born in a village in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Jayant Digambar Somalkar is an engineering graduate, but his creative bent of mind made him veer towards filmmaking. His debut short film, ‘Iyatta - Class,' showed at many film festivals and won many awards. He has co- written and co-directed the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime Video Original Series 'Guilty Minds’. ‘Sthal - A Match’ marks the director's debut feature, showcasing his talent for storytelling and commitment to presenting social issues in an authentic and compassionate manner.

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Trailer

Credits

Crew:

Director:   

Jayant Digambar Somalkar

Writer:

Jayant Digambar Somalkar

Producers:

Shefali Bhushan

Karan Grover

Riga Malhotra

Jayant Somalkar

Film Editor:

Abhijit Deshpande

Featured Cast:

     ​       

Nandini Chikte

Taranath Khiratakar

Sangita Sonekar

Suyog Dhawas

Sandip Somalkar

Sandip Parkhi

Swati Ulmale

Gauri Badki

Mansi Pawar

Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation

 

Restoration Credit:

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)

Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

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