Sajitha Madathil

Sajitha Madathil
Sajitha Madathil
Born	September 2nd calicut, Kerala
Residence	Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Malayali
Citizenship	India
Occupation	Film actress
Spouse(s)	Rubin D Cruz

Sajitha Madathil is an Indian film and theatre actress.^[1] Her performance in Joy Mathew’s feature film Shutter (2012) won her the State film award for best second actress.^[2] She is Deputy Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi ^[3](Academy of Music and Dance, India), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She appeared in the feature films Ee Adutha Kaalathu in 2012, in Adimadhyantham (Beginning, Middle and End) in 2011, and in Shalini Usha Nair’s feature film Akam (The Interior) in 2011.

Early life and Education

Sajitha Madathil Born in Kozhikode, Kerala, done her Post-graduation in Theatre Arts (M.A.in Drama), Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, M.Phil in Theatre Studies, School of Letters, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala and a Ph.D Scholar in School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Career

Currently Sajitha Madathil is working as Deputy Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi(Academy of Music and Dance, India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India). She has also worked as the Deputy Director, Kerala Chalachithra Academy(Academy of Motion Pictures, Kerala State), Documentation Officer/Documentary Producer, Other Media Communications, New Delhi and Producer, Kairali TV, India. She is also a Lecturer cum theatre expert at National Institute of Integrated learning and management, New Delhi.

Personal life

She is married to Rubin D Cruz who is assistant editor in National Book Trust of India. Their Son is Aaromal studying in Delhi. Her Mother M Savithri is a Retired teacher, now staying with her only sister Sabitha at Thiruvannur, Calicut. Her father Chandra Sekhara Menon from Thanur died while she was very young.

Activism

Sajitha Madathil was initiated into theatre through the street plays (Kala Jatha)of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) and performances for various women's groups in Kerala, India. KSSP is the renowned social and people's science movement in Kerala that propagates its vision and ideas through theatre. KSSP is the recipient of Right Livelihood Award. She has been active in the Malayalam (Kerala) theatre and feminist discourse for more than a decade. Sajitha Madathil is one of the founders of Abhinethri (Actress), the first women’s theatre group in Kerala, formed to explore the potential and possibilities of women's expressions.

Filmography

Theater Production

Sajitha Madathil has actively working in Kerala Theatre from 1987 onwards. She participated in more than 20 productions as an actress, and also directed two solo performance and wrote 3 plays, Matsyaganddhi, Chanki Chankaran Family reality Show and Mother’s Day. Her main Play Productions she participated as an actress are:

• Muditheyyam(1991)
• Aashad ki Ek Din (1993)
• Radha (1994)
• Bharatavakyam (1994)
• Chirakadiyochakal (1995)
• Beauty Parlour (1999)
• Matsyaganddhi (2002)
• Guardians of the Deep (2002)
• Water Play (2002)
• Mathilukal (2008)
• Spinal Code(2010)

TV/ Video Productions

Sajitha Madathil worked as a producer in Kairali TV, a Malayalam Satellite Channel, from 2000 to 2002. During this tenure, conceived, co-ordinated and directed 75 episodes of a weekly magazine titled Penmalayalam (Malayali Women) on women's issues and performance tradition. She received Three state awards for Documentary Making. For Public Relations Department, Government of Kerala she directed a documentary on P K Medini—Maattathinte pattukari"( The Minstrel of Change) in 2011 with duration of 42min.

Publication

Sajitha Madathil is actively writing on Kerala theater for last few years. She received Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Best book of the year for her first book on Theatre history of Women in Malayalam Theatre, 2010. Now she is working on a book on women’s intervention in three performing art forms of Kerala under the fellowship of Indian Foundation for Arts (IFA) She publish articles in her blog http://matsyaganddhi.blogspot.com/ Aranginte Vakabedangal, (Shaded of Theatre) Kottayam: DC Books, 2012, Malayala Nadaka Sthree Charithram, (Women’s theatre history) Kozhikode: Mathrubhumi Publishing House, 2010. M K Kamalam, A Biography Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy, 2010. And “ Matsyaganddhi” screen play in the Anthology of Screen Plays .New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004 are her published works.

Awards

• Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress for acting in Movie “Shutter” 2013
• Kerala State Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Best Theatre Book 2010
• Kerala State Television Award for best current affairs programme in 2000
• Best Children's Documentary Award by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare, in 2000.
• Kerala Film Critics Award for Best Documentary in 2001
• 2013 - Asiavision Awards - Best Supporting Actress^[4]

Controversies

Sajitha Madathil's appearance in the “Indulekha Hair Oil” advertisement created a big controversy.^[5] This advertisement shows an angry Sajitha, standing in the middle of a group of women, mostly working women who have just gathered in a bus stand (that we come to know as the advertisement progresses), voices her ire against the eve teasers in Kerala. The angry woman (almost an anti-thesis to the famous Lalitaji of the vintage Surf advertisement) aka Sajitha says that there are some men who are (sexually) excited when they see women with long hairs. Then she asks whether all the women should do away with their hairs and go for bob cuts (like the stereotypical western feminists do). She does not stop there either. She goes on to say that let all women grow hair and handle the eve teasers on the spot. Then the advertisement show us a girl (obviously with long hair) sitting in a bus while a man takes her photograph via his mobile phone camera. Suddenly another girl (again with long hairs) jumps up and snatches the mobile from him. This ad created controversy as it downplays men and hints that all men are sexually ill. Sajitha’s advertisement could have been effective had it avoided the anti-feminist utterances of equating women with small hair with men themselves or the ones who behave like men. Besides, this ad does not tell how long hairs are going to help a woman in actually fighting an aggressive eve teaser.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sajitha_Madathil.

• http://therealcinema.blogspot.in/2013/03/blog-post.html
• https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.593661063995591.1073741825.200487876646247&type=1
• https://ibnlive.in.com/news/a-tryst-with-the.../156588-60-123.html
• http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/article820678.ece?viewImage=1
• http://indulekha.biz/index.php?route=product/author/product&author_id=496
• http://matsyaganddhi.blogspot.in/2010/03/stage-for-thought-sajitha-madathil.html
• http://www.mathrubhumi.com/movies/interview/345642/#storycontent
• http://www.mangalam.com/print-edition/sunday-mangalam/38472
• http://globalmalayalam.com/news.php?nid=2719#.UT8OU9anBc7
• http://lifeglint.com/content/movie/shutter-film-review
• http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98Her%E2%80%
• http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/12/18/stories/2009121851120300.htm
• http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/11/27/stories/2009112751010200.htm
• http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/of-and-by-women/article4462328.ece
• http://matsyaganddhi.blogspot.in/2010/03/stage-for-thought-sajitha-madathil.html
• http://indulekha.biz/index.php?route=product/author/product&author_id=496

References