"Nilita Vachani's 'Eyes of Stone' creates a depth of feeling, a poetry about human existence, out of its sharp close-up of one family's life in rural Keriya, at the far end of the great cultural divide…

…I don't think there is anything yet to match this film in Indian cinema in terms of the real life portraiture of a rural family. 'Eyes of Stone' is perhaps our best film in the Cinema Verité tradition. It is the intellectual intimacy between the filmmakers and their subjects, both Shanta's larger family and the anonymous mass of people congregating at the Bhankya Mata shrine that gives this film its human warmth, its major sociological insights and its brilliant cinematic quality.

The Indian Express, March 10, 1990

"Nilita Vachani has not only a fascinating subject but also an outstanding cameraman and sound recordists. The film is edited very skilfully and produced and directed with instinctive sensitivity by Nilita Vachani…a most powerful film and I cannot wait to see it again.."

Amita Malik, "The Possessed and the Innocent," The Statesman, May 12, 1990

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"The striking feature of both her films is their interest in people as people, and not mere illustrations of some social phenomenon. There is an unmistakeable warmth in the way her subjects respond to her, and to her camera. We are able to relate to the subjects of the films with rare depth and intimacy and with no sense of participating in some form of cinematic exploitation, sensationalism or devaluation of the subjects. Respect for the subject is carried over into the cinematic language which chooses carefully how it shows what is shows."

Kavita Singh, "Return of the Documentary," The Economic Times, 26 Jun 1993

"So what's so special about this film apart from its being a maiden venture with thematic and technical maturity unexpected in one so young? It is a powerful film with stark shades of a gripping psychodrama. Possession is routinely looked on as a problem, something to be cured, some one to be exorcised. Its causative circumstances have rarely been explored, and for the very first time on celluloid in this film…"

Chitra Padmanabhan, The Pioneer, Feb 11, 1992

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"The narrative follows a smooth, sensitive and easy flowing strain as it cruises through the psyche of tortured souls, viewed more as victims of a convoluted social system than as good or bad individuals."

Nikhat Kazmi, The Times of India, March 18, 1990

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"Eyes of Stone est un documentaire indispensable de la réalisatrice indienne Nilita Vachani qui filme avec entêtement une jeune femme convaincue qu'un esprit malin s'est emparé d'elle. Marieé a dix ans, cette jeune femme qui en a aujourd'hui 19 a eu trois enfants. Ballottée entre sa famille et ses beaux parents, méprisée par un mari qui lui dit ouvertement qu'elle est bonne à rien, Shanta plonge régulièrement dans des crises d'envoûtement.

Il faut voir ce document étonnant. Car dans ces lamentations, ces mélopées, ces cris incantatoires au temple de la déesse, se lit toute la misère d'une femme sacrifiée à l'ordre patriarcal indien. Et Nilita Vachani suit pas à pas cette jeune femme, sans s'apitoyer sur son sort, avec une rigueur et une précision documentaire remarquables."

France Lafuste, Culture et Société, 7 Juin, 1990

"…Ce que touche le plus, en tous cas, c'est la douleur, l'isolement atroce de Shanta, la détresse de ses enfants, la présence et la patience indéfectibles d'Amanji, la tendresse résignée du père et du frère, l'insensibilité bornée et le machisme du mari…

Contrairement aux apparences bien plus qu'un document ethnographique sur un cas de possession, c'est un film sur le mal de vivre de la femme dans la société indienne tradionelle… C'est cela que révèle avec force le très beau film de Nilita Vachani, celui du moins qu'on a pu voir en 1990 au Cinéma du Réel à Beaubourg et au Festival des Films de Femmes à Creteil."

Thérèse-Marie Deffontaines, Le Monde, 13 Juillet, 1991

"The ostensible subject of this impressive documentary film is spirit possession and religious healing in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, India; but it also constitutes a forceful commentary on the structural subordination and powerlessness of Rajasthani women. As a visual ethnography it skilfully documents the cultural constitution and psychosocial correlates of Indian spirit affliction through the medium of a single case study. The focus of the film is a young mother, Shanta, and the treatment of her illness by Bhankya Mata, a regional goddess. A powerful soundtrack consists in the voices of the characters and women's songs (subtitled in english) and the harsh, rhythmic sounds of the possessed and of worship at the Goddess's shrine…

For those who are familiar with the character of possession and healing in Hindu culture, the ethnography of the therapeutic process is documented with satisfying thoroughness. Skillful editing ensures that each sequence is prefaced or followed by interviews or translated songs that explain the action…

The film is both a compelling documentary and a remarkably comprehensive example of visual anthropology. Particularly in conjunction with appropriate written sources, it would provide highly effective teaching material for a wide variety of anthropological topics including popular Hinduism, medical anthropology, gender and ofcourse, possession. It also deserves to reach a wider general audience since it offers a sympathetic and revealing but wholly unpatronizing treatment of a classically "exotic" anthropological subject."

Helen Lambert in Visual Anthropology Vol 7, pp. 75-78

For transcripts of interviews, academic articles and full reviews, please contact the filmmaker.