RAJ GOND FILMS

Below you can click on one of two links to the film “Raj Gonds: Reflections In A Peacock Crown“.  One is an English language version.  The other is a Gondi language version that Raj Gond people will understand.

It was filmed in 1982 and transmitted on BBC 2 in the Worlds Apart series in 1983.  It is 54 minutes long.  This film was shot by the famous cameraman, Roger Deakins, soon after he left film-school.

It examines the traditions of the Raj Gonds, once a rich and powerful people in the 16th century.  They ruled a large area of the Deccan in central India.  But now they live on land paying rent to the Telangana Government. 

The film focuses on their annual five-day festival called ‘Dandari’ when young men cover themselves with dust and ashes, like their great deity who created the world.  They take a self-deprecating look at their low status, poking fun at the money lenders and landlords who have taken ownership of the very land that their ancestors cleared cleared from the forests and impoverished them.

I hope you will enjoy it and gain a deeper understanding of their rich culture.