India is primarily Hindu, secondarily Muslim, and both religions arrange marriages. This film is about just how rigid that system is. It is illegal to send a private investigator out to ask questions, illegal to have abortions, and both dowries and the caste system is illegal. However, investigators routinely go out to get dirt on a potential bride or groom, women have abortions - especially to be rid of female fetuses (femalicide) and so the proportion of women available for men to marry is shrinking. People who run away to marry someone they fell in love with that their parents do not approve because they are of a different caste, and severe physical punishments if they are caught happen. It's inexpensive to buy acid to throw in a woman's face for refusing a groom and men can be beaten to death as well. These "Honor Crimes" have their defenders and lawyers who will go to court to defend them. As a result there is, profiled in this documentary, a shelter where couples go and hide and a tiny room of a temple where they can be married. That they eloped and it's a done deal does not mean either of them will ever see their family again.
So, if you, like me, have studied yoga, and are of the opinion that India is a very spiritual country, well, it's also a difficult one to live in if you are a modern woman, one that doesn't believe in love as a reason for marriage. Despite the Kuma Sutra sex position manuals and romantic Bollywood movies, sex - even kissing - is not allowed before marriage. A woman without a husband has no status.
And perhaps the biggest taboo of all is homosexuality, although transgender people - considered the 3rd sex and mystical - are accepted.
All very sad, very distressing.
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