The myth follows a couple Ligdus and Telethusa, who were expecting a child. Ligdus was a farmer and wanted a son who could inherit the farms and carry on the farming legacy. He only wanted two things, one that his wife experience little pain during her labor and two that she gives him a son. One night Goddess Isis appeared in Telethusa’s dream and asked her to keep the …show more content…
The movie explores the similar themes that the Greek myth tackled. It begins with Umber (played by Irrfan Khan’s) desire to have a male child to carry the family lineage. His wife is afraid as Telethusa was, and desires a boy just to elevate that fear, but here is where the movie takes a darker turn from the otherwise happily ending myth. Umber is present at the time of the birth of his child, but is so blinded by the desire to have a male child that he ignores the fact that he has a daughter and decides to raise her as a boy named Kunwar. The movie then moves on to depict the gender issues Kunwar faces. Born as a woman but forced to be a boy, Kunwar constantly struggles to repress her femininity. She ultimately undergoes a gender transformation like Iphis, but in the movie Kunwar lets herself be drowned by her father’s troubled and wandering spirit so that Umber’s spirit can enter her body. Umber then tries to copulate with Neeli, the woman Kunwar was married to. Scared and knowing that it is not Kunwar, Neeli kills herself, while Umber’s spirit continues to wander around the