By Matters India Reporter
Indore, May 26, 2022: A feature film on Blessed Rani Maria Vattalil was premiered May 27 on Atmadarshan TV, a popular religious channel of the diocese of Indore, central India.
Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal of Indore, who addressed the function in Indore, recalled Blessed Rani Maria’s struggle to organize poor tribals against the exploitation of moneylenders. She was among the first in Madhya Pradesh to successfully implement the concept of Self Help Groups, the Divine Word prelate added.
The film narrates the story of Sister Rani Maria, a member of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation who worked for landless laborers in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh. Her work among tribal people angered exploitative landlords and moneylenders. She had faced several threats to life. Her opponents also hatched a plot to murder her.
She was stabbed to death on February 25, 1995, by hitman Samandar Singh at Nachanbore Hill near Indore while she was going in a bus to Indore and then to Kerala, her native state. She was 41 then.
She had 40 major injuries and 14 bruises. As she died she kept uttering, “Jesus!”
Her murder hit the headlines in the national media and a large number of people turned up for her last rites in Udainagar, a village 55 km northeast of Indore.
The slain nun came to limelight again when Sister Selmy Paul, her blood sister visited Samandar Singh in the prison on Rakshabandhan (festival of siblings). Sister Paul tied “rakhi” (a colourful thread) on Singh’s hands to accept him as her brother. It was also a sign of forgiveness on behalf of the slain nun’s family.
The family also moved a clemency petition on behalf of Singh for his early release. The petition led to his early release from the prison. Singh then traveled to Kerala to ask forgiveness from Sister Rani Maria’s family. The diocese of Indore opened the cause of Sister Rani Maria’s for sainthood. She was declared blessed November 4, 2017, in Indore.
Atmadarshan TV director Anand Cheriyath says the purpose of making the film was to depict the virtue of forgiveness.
The film was shot in Indore and its suburbs. Father Selvin Ignatius, assistant director of Atmadarshan, directed the film. The script was written by Riju Chandrayan, edited by Nitheesh K. Das and DOP by Deepak Pandey.
The cast include Ami Neema in the lead, Keshav, Madhu and many artists from Indore. The sound score is by Ebin Pallichan from Kerala and art direction is by Vishal Mehta of Ujjain.
Meanwhile a Bollywood film on Blessed Rani Maria titled “The face of the faceless” is expected to be released in August.
It director Shaison P Ouseph says the film is the product of “a 5-year dream and hard work.”
He says the film, to be released in Hindi and Malayalam, is on the value of “utmost forgiveness and sacrifice” than just the life story and mission of Sister Rani Maria.