Jai Santoshi Maa (1975)

Synopsis:
Maa Santoshi is an emblem of love, contentment, forgiveness, happiness and hope. It is so believed that fasting and praying for her for 16 consecutive Fridays brings peace and prosperity in ones family.

Santoshi Maa inspires an individual to cherish family values and to come out of the crisis with one's determination. Santoshi Maa is also considered to be an incarnation of Mother Durga and is widely worshipped through out India and by Indians residing outside India.

Vrata-katha

Unlike other Indian mythological films which were based on the Hindu epics or the Puranic scriptures, Jai Santoshi Maa was based on a popular pamphlet about the vrata katha (legend of the ritual fast) of Santoshi Mata's Friday vrata. The vrata katha is as follows: An old woman had seven sons, the youngest of whom was irresponsible so she served him the leftovers of his brother's meals as his daily meal. The wife of the youngest son got to know this and told her husband, who left the house to seek his fortune. He acquired work with a merchant and became wealthy, but forgot about his wife. His wife was tormented by her in-laws in absence of her husband. Once, she came to know about the 16-week Santoshi Ma vrata and performed it. As a result, Santoshi Mata appeared in her husband's dream and informed him of his wife's plight. He returned home wealthy and set up a separate household with his wife. In the udyapan ceremony of the vrata, the in-laws plotted against the wife and served sour food to the eight boys, offending Santoshi Mata. As a consequence, her husband was arrested. The wife re-performed the vrata and the udyapan. Her husband was released from prison and she soon bore a son. Once, the goddess visited the family, in a terrifying form; while the in-laws fled, the wife recognized the goddess and worshipped her. Then the in-laws asked forgiveness of the goddess and the whole family was blessed by the goddess. A. K. Ramanujan calls this tale with nameless characters as "the most interior kind of folktales: those generally told by women within domestic space." The vrata katha also does not associate the goddess with Ganesha—the god of obstacle removal and beginnings, who is described as her father in the film and other devotee literature.

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