Lakshmi and Me Nishtha Jain

Domestic servants in India number around 15 million. Forgotten as real workers with certain rights like a minimum wage, their exploitation is facilitated by a hierarchical social system. Nishtha Jain is an Indian filmmaker trying to figure out the nature of her relationship with her 20-year-old maid, Lakshmi.

After gaining her consent with; “Yes, Didi, my life really deserves a film”, Nishtha starts to look at Lakshmi through her lens. Nishtha’s camera takes her from her own kitchen sink to a tiny home in a little alleyway – one that she could have seen, had she looked down from her middle-class balcony. The movie sometimes becomes uncomfortable to watch; when for example Nishtha has left the camera on in her bedroom while out, and Lakshmi is cleaning the floor. Lakshmi wearily glances into the lens while on her knees, like an animal caught by a night-vision camera in a wildlife show. This is the extent of the distance between the lady and the maid. Nishtha is the child of an environment wherein hiring a maid is like changing your socks.

Still, Lakshmi’s story is a compelling one and shows a woman with a sense of strength and self-worth. By attempting to form a difficult but very human relationship, even though it doesn’t quite find its right shape, this film might offer the first clumsy steps to closing the gap between two different social strata.

Even though the filmmaker struggles with her role and can’t seem get rid of the social equation she is part of, she does not try to hide it and thus has been brave enough to put her own conduct up for scrutiny. The film becomes perhaps more honest, by not claiming to have the highest of morals. The last shot shows both women in their old roles, one sitting in a chair with a book, one on the floor with a rag. It seems that Nishtha does not think she has answered all questions, or that she has wiped her own slate clean.

by Maartje Alders