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The movie starts with an eve teasing scene where Soni reacts violently and the gentle Kalpana, who is her boss, reprimands her
It was one of those long drawn evenings when you are wondering what to watch and the movie Soni appeared in my Netflix suggestions. Soni is an 2018 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film edited and directed by debutant Ivan Ayr and stars Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Saloni Batra. Written by Ayar and Kislye, the film chronicles the life of a police officer and her superintendent in Delhi Police who deal with the cases regarding crimes against women.
Soni is about two women police officers, Kalpana and Soni. Kalpana is the boss, very gentle yet with a mind of her own. Though she is a senior police officer and also the wife of a senior police officer, she is slightly subservient to him and willing to stretch an extra mile to placate him but still manages to hold her own.
Soni is not of the officer rank. She is grappling with a broken marriage and a wounded psyche, and she is always angry. Lewd comments, male entitlement and male patriarchy make her lose reason!
It starts with an eve teasing scene where Soni reacts violently and the gentle Kalpana, who is her boss, reprimands her but the underlying care and the soft corner for her stand out in spite of the harsh words spoken. Soni lives in a middle-class housing society in a one-bedroom flat. Small vignettes of her life are shown like her watering the green plants, praying to a small deity and her flat is a bare basic flat with no adornment.
Her simmering anger remains on the surface, ready to burst like a volcano and the hurt she hides behind her aggressive demeanour is delineated. There is a stark contrast between Soni’s solitary pariah like existence and Kalpana’s beautifully decorated house where she lives with her husband and a cantankerous mother in law. There is also a house who is available at her beck and call.
Though Kalpana also gets to hear about her state of childlessness and how time is running out for her if she wants to have a baby but she never responds verbally. Her eyes give away her hurt as though she has internalised her pain. Both change as the movie progresses, but the gentle Kalpana will always remain close to my heart.
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.” ― Ralph Sockman
Image via Netflix
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Rajshri Deshpande, who played the fiery protagonist in Trial by Fire along with Abhay Deol speaks of her journey and her social work.
Rajshri Deshpande as the protagonist in ‘Trial by Fire’, the recent Netflix show has received raving reviews along with the show itself for its sensitive portrayal of the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire tragedy, 1997 and its aftermath.
The limited series is based on the book by the same name written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost both their children in the tragedy. We got an opportunity to interview Rajshri Deshpande who played Neelam Krishnamoorthy, the woman who has been relentlessly crusading in the court for holding the owners responsible for the sheer negligence.
Rajshri Deshpande is more than an actor. She is also a social warrior, the rare celebrity from the film industry who has also gone back to her roots to give to poverty struck farming villages in her native Marathwada, with her NGO Nabhangan Foundation. Of course a chance to speak with her one on one was a must!
“What is a woman’s job, Ramesh? Taking care of parents-in-law, husband, children, home and things at work—all at the same time? She isn’t God or a superhuman."
The arrays of workstations were occupied by people peering into their computer screens. The clicks of keyboard keys were punctuated by the occasional footsteps moving around to brainstorm or collaborate with colleagues in their cubicles. Most employees went about their tasks without looking at the person seated on either side of their workstation. Meenakshi was one of them.
The thirty-one-year-old marketing manager in a leading eCommerce company in India sat straight in her seat, her eyes on the screen, her fingers punching furiously into the keys. She was in a flow and wanted to finish the report while the thoughts and words were coming effortlessly into her mind.
Natu-Natu. The mellifluous ringtone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned at her mobile phone with half a mind to keep it ringing until she noticed the caller’s name on the screen, making her pick up the phone immediately.
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