Kamli

In the Lambada tribal community, a baby girl is often seen as a burden, and families under pressure sell their daughters. Kamli, a hard-working Lambada woman, is pushed to give up her first-born girl, and her daily life is a struggle on every front: a husband, Redya, who drinks, punishing labour, and contractors and other men who treat her as easy prey. When she later gives birth to a son, the baby is switched in hospital and she is handed a girl instead. Refusing to accept the exchange, Kamli begins a stubborn fight to get her son back, which eventually draws in the press and becomes a public protest. Nandita Das plays the title role, supported by Tanikella Bharani, Shafi and L. B. Sriram. Director K. N. T. Sastry built the story out of his own award-winning documentary about tribal women forced to sell their babies, and Suddala Ashok Teja wrote the lyrics. A short, socially committed drama, Kamli was screened at the Busan International Film Festival and the Asian Film Festival in Mumbai, and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.