Last evening, I met Chandra, a dear friend from my university days. She showed her film Remembrance of Things Present at a festival organised by Pedestrian Pictures, and answered questions from movie buffs.

Chandra was married, when she was barely 16, to a distant relation who worked as a university professor. She had a child a year after that, and was caught in a world that she felt had stifled all her choices. Not that her husband was unkind or anything. It was just that she felt she had been cheated of a normal life:  growing up, studying, finding love and then getting married.

About 15 years ago Chandra called all her friends home, just before she set out to study in the US. She had completed her MA in English, during which she was considered a bright, sensitive student, and was going to New York. We didn't see her for years and years. Then she came back, and caught up with her friends here in Bangalore. She was on the way to Germany for a film making course; her US visa had expired. She moved to Canada later, which is where she says she found love. She now lives with her musician-husband Johann.

It took about four years for Chandra to make this film. She has footage of her patents justifying their action of marrying her off, and her first husband Eshwar talking about why he accepted the match. She also makes a trip to Basavana Bagewadi, a sacred place for Lingayats, with her parents and daughter.

I won't attempt any film criticism here, but let me just say I was swept away by the forthrightness of Chandra's film. Her first husband Eshwar was at the screening, and it was the first time he was seeing the film. He took it all with such dignity and grace. Students watching the festival had many questions for her, and she answered them all with the same frankness.