- Close to the holy River Ganga, an ancient tree provides shelter and comfort to Uma, a mute, orphan, Brahmin girl. Treated like a drudge by her cruel aunt, Uma is also cursed by a horoscope that portends widowhood. This might not be such a bad thing as this is 1828 and it will be next year before the British outlaw the religiously enforced burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pyres ("sati/suttee"). However, the priest thinks it a sin that a girl over the age of puberty is not married and tradition has it that a younger member of the family cannot marry before an older one. A solution is found: Uma is married to the tree. When she becomes pregnant (the victim of an assault by the local schoolteacher) not even the superstitious villagers believe that the tree is the father and Uma is ostracised for having been unfaithful to her "husband". Sent to live in the cowshed, Uma is forced to shelter in her tree when the cowshed is blown away during a violent storm. Lightning blasts the tree and in the morning Uma is found dead amongst the shattered branches and stumps. To the wonderment and consternation of all the onlookers, this most despised member of society has blood on her forehead resembling the vermillion that a groom puts on his bride whilst the manner of her death resembles that of an exulted sati.—van Goethem
- Sati is set in the early nineteenth century before the Sati Act and when Brahminical Hinduism had reached its nadir.
Uma, a mute Brahmin girl, lives with her uncle's family as she is an orphan. Since Uma has a faulty horoscope which indicate widowhood, the family finds it impossible to get her married off. According to a custom prevalent at the time, Uma is given in marriage to a tree!
The tree that she is married to was Uma's childhood companion and the film is about the relationship between two mute creatures - the girl and the tree.
However, Uma is taken advantage of by a resident school teacher. She becomes pregnant causing great embarrassment to the family.
The one stormy night, Uma who had been banished from the family quarters to the cowshed, takes shelter from the storm under the tree (her 'husband'). That night the tree and the girl are truck by lightning and killed together.
In the morning the villagers find the girl lying under the tree, blood all over her forehead like bridal vermilion. Ironically, it is her mute husband and friend, the tree, which saves Uma from her shame. It is the only symbol of virility in a society full of cowards.
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