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The Hindi film industry or Bollywood - as it is called, doesn't have much of a reputation in making films that focus around women, leave alone tackle women's issues. That said, over the decades, some sensitive films have been made that tug the heart and shake your conscience. Few and far between, but these have made an impact. Strangely though, most have been made by very very sensitive male directors.  Image - Pixabay Compared to regional cinema, particularly Bengali and Malayalam film industries - that often have films made with the female gaze, Bollywood is mostly about males tackling feminist topics sensitively, albeit through the male gaze. Thankfully, that is changing and with the advent of talented lady directors like Gauri Shinde, Meghna Gulzar, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, Konkona Sen Sharma, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Shonali Bose, the female gaze is gaining prominence slowly. Ahead of International Women's Day, I pick five commercial Bolly films that made an imprint on my

It was his little secret. He loved dressing up in feminine attire.  At these moments he felt most at ease, as if some invisible shackles had been lifted off him. How he hated those dull shirts, tees and jeans he was expected to wear all the time as a teenage boy.  Why couldn’t he just flaunt some beautiful odhnas or twirl in flowing skirts instead? He carefully kept this quirk of his hidden from his parents - who pretended to be very modern, but had mindsets of the last century. They couldn’t tolerate any aberration in conventional behaviour - Akhil was quite aware of this. The way they reacted on hearing about inter-caste marriages and live-in relationships revealed their narrow thinking. And his mother! Long back, in Kanpur, when Akhil was barely seven, she had caught him practicing some moves of a Mohiniyattam dancer he had seen on TV. He was copying the danseuse, shyly practicing some of her hand and eye movements. Mrs. Srivastava had seen red and created a massive scene of s

When I started writing stories, I felt some people would find solace in my words. The purpose wasn't to earn money through selling books, but yes, money would be welcome when it came. The idea was to provide readers with something they could connect with. As it is, the process of writing involves immense churning within, and exhaustive editing and finishing after you have finally written what you want to. Any creator will tell you it is almost like birthing a child. Self-doubt assails you, you get nervous and unsure about your work, you aren't sure the denouement is looking apt, or the characters are relatable.  Then comes the commercial aspect of it all - as a new writer, you have to keep an eye on the reader's liking, avoid esoteric words and concepts, and make your content readable and catchy. Finally, what starts is the toughest part. Yes. Finding a publisher for your work.  Common Publishing Models For the uninitiated, there are basically two types of publishing models

Is it good enough? The moment you decide to bare your soul to others through creative expression, you realize the inherent complexity of the exercise. Can you really convert your thoughts and ideas to concrete language? Can truth be replicated on screen/paper? I can say this about my experience as a writer. I constantly have this tussle. Are the words and phrases actually conveying what I want to say?  Heck, are the words authentic at all?  Are words enough? Am I being authentic/genuine enough? Am I just writing to please, being politically correct? Do my words reflect my stance/my world view or someone else's? So many questions. so many conundrums.  To tell the truth, the writer is something of a nervous wreck!  Do I need to Say it? In this age of information overload, who wants to read or see something they have already read or seen? How do you bring newness into what is essentially a universal feeling or a routine experience? Will your language, expressions, words, ima

A film has been quietly making noise on OTT in the recent weeks.  Three of Us is a small, intimate film about a middle-aged woman on the verge of forgetting herself due to the onset of dementia (that curse of isolated, lonely lifestyles). Image source- IMDb Dementia and its after-effects has not been sufficiently explored in our films, I feel. With an increasingly aging population, dementia and Alzheimer's have become all too common a household problem, plaguing the silver generation and the persons caring for them.  However, this disease has started to alarmingly knock the doors of the middle-aged population too. Often, we find ourselves forgetting small things that happened a few days back. Sometimes, we tend to go blank, submerging in an abyss of not comprehending, not remembering, unable to fully fathom the reality around us. Of course, the disease is both neurological as well as mental. It has increased in these times of self-centred, isolated living, propelled by loneliness

Goa - the very name evokes laziness, sunny skies, colourful beaches, vibrant artwork, peppy music, dance, laughter - a ticket to Bohemia!  Needless to say, a visit to this paradise demands a travel write-up. But I won't talk about the usual Goa tourist attractions. I like to think of myself as a traveller rather than a tourist.  We stayed in North Goa this time, and checked out some nearby beaches and villages. So, let's talk about a bus ride from Candolim to Calangute. A football ground passes by. Some locals arguing in Konkani. The bus is choc-a-bloc with ordinary Goans going about their daily business. We pass fancy restaurants, malls, churches, small eateries, some "pure-veg" restaurants (yes, they exist in Goa!).  The bus drops us at Calangute bus stand, and we walk around a kilometer to the crazily crowded beach. Calangute and Baga have become what locals describe as fish markets. Punjabi songs blaring, hordes of tourist, shops peddling everything under the sun,