Maya
The quietly devastatingMayabegins with the statement, "Based on true practices." Not until the very end will those practices, which still take place in certain remote parts of India, be revealed. Until that time, Digvijay Singh's deceptively bucolic debut takes a quasi-documentary approach to the rural summer of 12-year-old Maya (wide-eyed Nitya Shetty) as she and cousin Sanjay (Nikhil Yadav) play in the sun, sneak candy, and drink warm milk. But then Maya "becomes a woman" and her family starts making preparations for her "prayer ceremony." Things seems normal enough, although Maya is never told what this ceremony entails and why it is so important. Although the disturbing centerpiece of her initiation into adulthood is more suggested than shown, the point is as clear as it is heartbreaking. It represents, quite simply, the brutal and irrevocable destruction of one girl's innocence. For this reason, the film is recommended for adult viewers, despite the young age of its central character.Mayais a complex and shattering film.--Kathleen C. Fennessy