D A H A N A M
based on the true story
about movie
Dahanam, an act of purification, is the film debut of producers Satish P. Kumar and T. Balarama and Open Field Media–India. Written and directed by Adari Murthy Sai, the film stars Aditya Om, Shanti Chandra, and FM Babai as the three leading characters, Priest (Bharadwaj Sastry), Landowner (Bhupati), and Burial Caretaker or Kati Kapari (Bhairagi). Based on true events that took place in 1980s rural Andhra Pradesh, each main character forms their identity and fate around the daily village life of a deteriorating rural Shiva temple. Sastry’s piety makes his family suffer to the point of starvation, and it is Bhairagi who challenges his conflicted condition while Bhupati attempts to assert his power over the temple as hereditary property. Caste identities are challenged as cruel limitations in changing times. Worship, struggle, abuse, misidentification, and evolution are fatefully and intimately tied to each character’s relationship with Shiva, the lord of destruction and burning.
