At The Edge

Hero travels to a place called "Naag gram", Snake Village, to research on snake venom that will save life of millions. He drives through a road that looks like poplar avenue of Baramula in Kashmir to arrive at a valley populated by a tribe of snake worshipers. Soon after arrival, forgetting all about research, Hero falls in love with a woman who is training to be a Naag Dasi, a woman who claims to be 'daughter of Naag Devta' and a 'Vish Kanya' whose mere touch can kill a man. And yet there are feelings of anti-animism budding in her heart, she doesn't understand a god that offers poison.  Love booms. Noorjahan sings. Father goes - Babu, Naag Dasi say prem karna paap hai . Violence erupts. Noorjahan sings. Lovers try to run-away. Get caught. Father goes - Shalaka ko Beti say Zyada Dharam pyara hai . Hero gets bitten by a snake. Heroine sings and dances to an idol of Snake god to save her love. God obliges, takes back the venom. In comes ...

video link Video from something dubbed from Telugu as Anmol Nagmani. Audio: Take a guess.

The Street light Scene The sheer weirdness of that street light scene redeems Jennifer Lynch's Hisss of all its iniquities. A Nagin  missing her snake-lover roams around the city in the dead of night. On seeing a moth-ridden street light, she climbs up and sheds some tears for her lost love. A path breaking take on shama-parwana  motif of old Hindi cinema and basic urdu poetry. The scene could have well gone into David Lynch territory if the viewer got to see the well-attired Nagin of Reena Roy climb up that pole and not Nagin of Mallika Sherawat in buff.

The Wife (Vijayalakshmi) A wife tries to win the love of her husband back from the 'other' woman using a magic potion but unknowingly ends up seducing a Cobra who fathers her child. The original story comes from Kannada folk tale. The story was recounted by A. K. Ramanujan to Girish Karnad who went on to write a play based on the tale (in 1988). Less than a decade later a film was made on the story. There are many points of divergence between the play and the film. Karnad's Nagamandala starts with another Kannada folktale, a playwright cursed with death for making people fall asleep with his productions. To escape death he has to stay awake all-night on a particular day of the month and to help him stay awake 'story' comes. This is the story of a Cobra who falls in love with a woman. The blind old woman (B. Jayashree in a wonderful performance) Appanna marries Rani but actually loves his mistress. When he goes out to meet with his mistress, Appann...