India is obsessed with marriages. Weddings take place all over the country in different regions and among different communities and they are celebrated like anything. However, even in today’s times in rural India, the idea of a girl’s forced arranged marriage still exists. Filmmaker Jayant Digambar Somalkar’s Sthal (A Match) boldly highlights this social evil. The movie takes place in a village in Maharashtra named Dongargaon and it revolves around Savita Daulatrao Wandhare (Nandini Chikte). She is in her Final year of Bachelor of Arts course and her specialization subject is Sociology. Her father (Taranath Khiratkar) and mother (Sangita Sonekar) wish to get her married off soon but she wants to study further.

In the last few years, the Marathi film industry has seen filmmakers from the Vidarbha region take the spotlight with films set in the region. Albeit a serious concern, Marathi films based in Vidarbha have had a set template revolving around farmer issues and farmer suicides. But films like Jayanti (Shailesh Narwade), Zollywood (Trushant Ingle), Ghaath (Chhatrapal Ninawe) and Territory (Sachin Shriram), have been changing the tide, bringing forth untapped stories. Jayant Digambar Somalkar’s ‘Sthal’ is the latest entrant in the list. The film, which releases theatrically a day ahead of International Women’s Day and features an ensemble cast of first-time actors, has won accolades across various international film festivals in the last couple of years. Set in Dongargaon village in Wardha, Sthal (A Match) revolves around the Wandhre family’s quest to find a suitable match for their daughter Savita (an impactful Nandini Chikte).