Sacred Evil
Encyclopedia
Sacred Evil is an India
n supernatural/surreal film directed by Abhigyan Jha
and Abhiyan Rajhans. It was released in 2006.Sacred Evil is about duality. It explores the premise that reality always has two sides. Where there is light, there is shadow.
, Sacred Evil is the Story of three women separated by a twenty year old secret. A nun, a Wiccan & a girl in search of her mother.
The nun is Martha, a 45 year old withering woman who lives in a secluded convent in Calcutta. Even in the sanctuary of the Church, she is haunted by a specter that threatens her sanity.
The Wiccan, Ipsita is called upon by the unconventional Mother Superior to heal Martha's soul.
The task is difficult as Martha is reticent in talking about the events in her past. Using her skills as a healer and her training as a Jungian psychotherapist, Ipsita gradually opens the door to Martha's story. The story of the one who haunts her.
A young Anglo Indian girl called Claudia grows up with the angst of not knowing her mother Maureen, alienated in her Indian surroundings by her blue eyes and blonde hair.
The story now goes back and forth as events from Claudia's life begin to intersect Martha's and Ipsita tries to sort out the tangled threads of the past and the present. In her search for the lost Maureen who everyone says looked much like her, a real English lady, Claudia becomes obsessed with her mother's image. She begins to turn into her mother. Like her, she seeks out and falls in love with a foreigner, Pierre, a young Frenchman who is in Calcutta for a doctorate. But Pierre is never sure who is in love with him, Claudia or Maureen.
As she tries to heal Martha with centuries old Egyptian rituals of the Wicca, Ipsita learns of Claudia's struggle to keep her sanity and Martha's attempts to save her soul. How she tried hard to bring her to the Church and let God heal her. Ipsita also learns that somewhere the attempts failed. Something happened. Claudia's burden became Martha's. With her own efforts failing to heal Martha's spirit, Ipsita is led to a startling discovery in the end which makes her wonder if the sacred will ever be as strong in us as the evil is.
Abhigyan jha &
Abhiyan Rajhans
Writing credit
Ipsita Ray Chakraverti, Book
Abhigyan Jha
& Mrinal Jha
, Screenplay
Cast (in credits order)
Sarika ... Ipsita
Lynsey Pow ... Claudia & Martha
Frédéric Andrau ... Pierre
Produced by
Sahara One Motion Pictures
Executive Producer
Undercover Productions (Abhigyan Jha)
Original Music
Claver Menezes
Cinematography
Ivan Kozelka
Film Editing
Sanjib Datta
Costume Design
Darshan Jalan
Make Up
Vikram Gaikwad
Original English Lyrics
Abhigyan Jha
's work. Lyrical and haunting - the film is a far cry from Bollywood fare. It is the first Indian English film that stars actors from France and England in leading roles. Commercially the film fared poorly as it was released without proper context by Percept Picture Company in India and has still not been released in Europe, USA and Canada - the markets for which the film was made. The Indian audience found it difficult to grasp the conflict between the church and the wiccan and the subdued and surreal drama. A lot of people in India still refer to the film as a horror film whereas the film is not even remotely in the horror genre. It does deal with the paranormal but it is more about alienation and loneliness and how strange life can be than ghosts and goblins.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n supernatural/surreal film directed by Abhigyan Jha
Abhigyan Jha
Abhigyan Jha was born in bihar and is best known as the director of the film Sacred Evil, as well as the executive producer, creative director, and script editor of the popular Indian Late Night Show Movers and Shakers. He also wrote the novel November Rain in December 1993, published by Abhigyan...
and Abhiyan Rajhans. It was released in 2006.Sacred Evil is about duality. It explores the premise that reality always has two sides. Where there is light, there is shadow.
Plot
Based on a true story from the case files of real-life Wiccan, Ipsita Roy ChakravertiIpsita Roy Chakraverti
Ipsita Roy Chakraverti is a Wiccan priestess based in India. Born into an elite family in India with a diplomat for a father and royalty for mother, Chakraverti spent her early years in Canada and the US where her father was stationed...
, Sacred Evil is the Story of three women separated by a twenty year old secret. A nun, a Wiccan & a girl in search of her mother.
The nun is Martha, a 45 year old withering woman who lives in a secluded convent in Calcutta. Even in the sanctuary of the Church, she is haunted by a specter that threatens her sanity.
The Wiccan, Ipsita is called upon by the unconventional Mother Superior to heal Martha's soul.
The task is difficult as Martha is reticent in talking about the events in her past. Using her skills as a healer and her training as a Jungian psychotherapist, Ipsita gradually opens the door to Martha's story. The story of the one who haunts her.
A young Anglo Indian girl called Claudia grows up with the angst of not knowing her mother Maureen, alienated in her Indian surroundings by her blue eyes and blonde hair.
The story now goes back and forth as events from Claudia's life begin to intersect Martha's and Ipsita tries to sort out the tangled threads of the past and the present. In her search for the lost Maureen who everyone says looked much like her, a real English lady, Claudia becomes obsessed with her mother's image. She begins to turn into her mother. Like her, she seeks out and falls in love with a foreigner, Pierre, a young Frenchman who is in Calcutta for a doctorate. But Pierre is never sure who is in love with him, Claudia or Maureen.
As she tries to heal Martha with centuries old Egyptian rituals of the Wicca, Ipsita learns of Claudia's struggle to keep her sanity and Martha's attempts to save her soul. How she tried hard to bring her to the Church and let God heal her. Ipsita also learns that somewhere the attempts failed. Something happened. Claudia's burden became Martha's. With her own efforts failing to heal Martha's spirit, Ipsita is led to a startling discovery in the end which makes her wonder if the sacred will ever be as strong in us as the evil is.
Cast & Crew
Directed byAbhigyan jha &
Abhiyan Rajhans
Writing credit
Ipsita Ray Chakraverti, Book
Abhigyan Jha
Abhigyan Jha
Abhigyan Jha was born in bihar and is best known as the director of the film Sacred Evil, as well as the executive producer, creative director, and script editor of the popular Indian Late Night Show Movers and Shakers. He also wrote the novel November Rain in December 1993, published by Abhigyan...
& Mrinal Jha
Mrinal Jha
Mrinal Jha is the co-founder of , along with her husband Abhigyan Jha, who is a renowned writer and director.In her first novel, entitled , launched in 1994, the book received rave reviews and was an instant sensation. The book inspired actress and producer Aroona Irani to make the serial Tum Bin...
, Screenplay
Cast (in credits order)
Sarika ... Ipsita
Lynsey Pow ... Claudia & Martha
Frédéric Andrau ... Pierre
Produced by
Sahara One Motion Pictures
Executive Producer
Undercover Productions (Abhigyan Jha)
Original Music
Claver Menezes
Cinematography
Ivan Kozelka
Film Editing
Sanjib Datta
Costume Design
Darshan Jalan
Make Up
Vikram Gaikwad
Original English Lyrics
Abhigyan Jha
Critical and Commercial
Upon its release, the movie received mixed reviews from critics and was compared to Satyajit RaySatyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
's work. Lyrical and haunting - the film is a far cry from Bollywood fare. It is the first Indian English film that stars actors from France and England in leading roles. Commercially the film fared poorly as it was released without proper context by Percept Picture Company in India and has still not been released in Europe, USA and Canada - the markets for which the film was made. The Indian audience found it difficult to grasp the conflict between the church and the wiccan and the subdued and surreal drama. A lot of people in India still refer to the film as a horror film whereas the film is not even remotely in the horror genre. It does deal with the paranormal but it is more about alienation and loneliness and how strange life can be than ghosts and goblins.