In Dehradun, an unusual women바카라s helpline commits to resolving marital conflicts. Predominantly made up of women, the team works with embittered couples over a long stretch, angling for a middle ground. Shaswati Talukdar and Cheryl Hess바카라 Hot Docs-premiering Marriage Cops trails two sub-inspectors Sandhya Rani and Krishna Jayara as they try to nudge couples towards a semblance of mutual toleration. The case is stretched till the marriage is somehow renewed. For the helpline, separation is viewed like the final defeat. The central idea is to 바카라fix바카라 the marriage.
Cultural impetus undergirds the cops바카라 approach. Reconciliation is key, uppermost in the officers바카라 agenda. It dictates every conversational maneuver, how they drive the couple towards an inkling of peace, even if fleetingly borrowed. We follow cases of three primary couples. Issues range from abusive marriages, neglected kids and uncaring, absent fathers. The helpline바카라s quest is geared to immediate, pragmatic solutions.
The super-diligent police outline four types of conflict: dowry, family, property, adultery. Often, there바카라s the whole juggernaut of family and kin and mothers-in-law that interrupt the couple바카라s private world. It바카라s an intrusive force which keeps sons in a stranglehold, licensing them to ignore their own wives if the marriage creates trouble within the larger family. The wife is compelled into a tight spot, trampled by family elders바카라 whims and permanently struggling for space and dignity. For the couple, counselling is arranged. A committee, including a psychologist, lawyer, police, asks them to reassess mutual complaints and settle.
In the counselling sessions, a whole lot of emphasis is placed on the cultural need to preserve the institution of marriage. A member of counselling committee exhorts against succumbing to 바카라western바카라 temptations like divorce. Even if evidently toxic, it바카라s better for the time being that the woman finds some measure of possibility, a compromise by being within the marriage. The aggrieved wife is asked to adjust for the sake of her child.
The wife severing herself from marriage is mostly looked at with cynicism and disfavor. It바카라s downright unfeasible. Compounded with taboo, social stigma, the divorced woman has almost no safety net, if she doesn바카라t have a job. Her own family turns its back, abandoning her. Rupali admits doing the court rounds, aiming for prosecuting her husband would be expensive. She cannot afford it when she already has a child with ample needs demanding attention. It바카라d be a lonely path.
One of the officers disapprovingly talks of how women aren바카라t firm in holding men accountable. In another instance, the police judgingly talk of a woman who gave up on her child바카라s custody too easily. In personal chats among themselves, their individual ideologies might contradict demands of the job, whatever it takes to ease a crisis. Amidst ever-mounting stacks of case files enveloping the cops, Talukdar and Hess offer fine eye-holes into clashes between culturally entrenched expectations on womanhood and small freedom.
Helming the helpline isn바카라t so much about physical labor as it is about the mental toll, which must be disguised. Sandhya mentions the strain it puts바카라sleeplessness, constant headaches, fatigue of having to reason with fraught individuals. One of the constables despairs when her request for a transfer to another department is denied. Sandhya insists that cracks in their composure must never show. Otherwise, on account of them being women, dismissal will be handed out quick. There바카라s a staggering number of cases to continually track. Putting a bold front is essential. 바카라Cry at home,바카라 she tells her colleagues. The onus of having to prove themselves capable at work hovers always.
Talukdar and Hess illuminate the many paradoxes in the police바카라s lives. Their powers are limited but it바카라s at the station these women find some form of rest and break from domestic duty. A constable reiterates wishing she were in office, where she doesn바카라t have to serve guests. Rather at the station, tea is brought to them. Tussle with patriarchy바카라internalising it to some degree바카라informs the compelling documentary바카라s fault lines. The directors don바카라t move with the inspectors into their homes, keeping a professional lens front and center. The film is suffused with grimness but there are wry pockets of laughter and chatter among the cops. One of them says she witnesses so much fighting at work that she gets too tired to muster one at home. Another cop remarks that she too would like a taste of the 바카라sweet poison바카라 of marriage, despite the horror stories. Humor is one way to offset and temporarily shield from the acute harshness of what one is privy to at the station, day in and day out.
Marriage Cops had its world premiere at Hot Docs 2025.
