Pranali: The Tradition

Pranali relates her story to U.S.-based Judy, starting with her birth in an impoverished village near the Karnataka and Maharashtra border where families are forced to eat mice. The Mahant spots her during 1996 and compels her to wed 'Dev' and become a Devdasi. Her mother protests, but her father overturns all objections and presents his daughter to this outlawed practice. Young and unknowing, she is forced to be intimate with the Mahant and then sold to a politician for 20 acres of land. Before she could be molested, she manages to escape, files a police complaint, only to be sent to a Nari Ashram where wealthy males and politicians seek sexual favors. Then during 2003, she is then sold to Akka, a brothel-owner at Laxmi Nagar, Mumbai. It is here she will meet and befriend several other prostitutes including Chanda, Shakila, and Kanchi. Shortly thereafter she becomes pregnant, and despite Akka's advice for an abortion, decides to keep the baby, a girl she subsequently names Roshni. While she continues to make a living in squalid, unhealthy conditions, she faces challenges after she goes to secure school admission for her daughter - a move that will pit her against goons, politicians, and corrupt police.