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Modern Love Mumbai shows us both women's passion, what they give to themselves and guilt, what society gives women.
Modern love Mumbai comprises of six episodes released on Amazon Prime. Each episode tells a story of love, life, the alienating effects of big cities and their hustle culture. Of women and their choices and socio-cultural restrictions imposed on them, the pressures of building a happy marriage and keeping the family together and how women navigate through the chaos. How women resist such bondages and hold to their autonomy.
There were two elements which connected almost all the female characters and maybe all the female audiences watching, namely, passion and guilt. Passion is what women give to themselves and guilt is what society gives to women trying to practice their passion.
Many times women are put in the back seat of their lives so that the typical structure of a “happy family” can survive, so that the marriage can be kept intact. And unfortunately if still it doesn’t, then it is the women to be blamed.
The other times, women are conditioned in such a manner that they end up blaming themselves for the ills of others. Take four of the six stories of Modern Love Mumbai.
Consider Lali, a Kashmiri woman working as a cook in high end apartments, who takes it upon herself to fix her marriage and begs her husband to come back after he abruptly dumps her. His excuse was – “Maza nai aa raha” (it is not fun anymore). Lali then finds herself all alone and afraid trying to navigate a big city all by herself.
At first Lali is devastated, thinking that living life without her husband is neither possible nor desirable. But over time, she makes friends with her loneliness and in her solitude starts exploring her passions. She realises she wants to put her talents to better use and puts up a chai stall at night, she learns to face her fears of travelling to places alone and learns to fly like a free bird over busy roads on an old bicycle, she dances her heart out in front of a CCTV camera at night basking in her independence.
Lali slowly starts living life for herself and for her happiness. She finally lets go of her husband, saying to him right to his face that he need not come back when he tries to get back with her.
Take Dilbar, a beautiful confident working woman in her 60s who blames herself after a boy in his 20s confessed that he sexually fantasises about her and is very attracted to her. Dilbar never allowed herself to look for love or desire after her partner passed many years back. She never allowed herself to be happy again.
She however learns to drop this baggage along with her guilt she felt. She finally comes out of her cocoon to try to build a sweet relationship with this young boy, a relationship of chatting over cups of coffee and the occasional sexual fantasy.
Then comes Saiba, a landscape architect and a single woman in her 30s, brewing with self-doubt and career anxieties. Feeling the pressure to find a partner, she enters the unpredictable world of dating apps to find herself a modern man. Only to find that these seemingly “modern” men are not modern after all.
They want their partners to go on family trips, not to wake up too late, drink a beer or two but a third one is a no-no! There were some men who just would just prefer to chat and but never show up on a date.
She then meets a man who doesn’t like being on social media, a simple guy busy on a work project. He was the type she usually falls for. To her surprise, this man becomes someone around whom Saiba judges herself less and this is where their story begins!
Lastly, Latika dreams of being a successful novelist but is caught between marriage and motherhood. She has writer’s block, unable to finish her novel, she finds it hard to be in the right frame of mind and the peaceful space to let her writing flow. When she discusses these issues with her husband he plainly dismisses them and even blames her for not being able to write.
Amid managing household chores, a stubborn husband, kids and their studies, and the stresses of city life, she begins re-evaluates her choices. Of how it could be “if” she had made other choices in her life and made herself a priority.
The beauty of these stories lies in their realness, in how strongly they connect to the everyday lives of the audience and their struggles, especially women.
Be it the love for a cup of cutting chai, closeness with grandmas, judgments on being gay, the inherent rule of adjustment for women after marriage, feeling of being caught up in the fast-moving city life, the pressure of finding a life partner, these stories connect with us all. We see how love is navigated through all the chaos.
We see how women move forward in their lives and how they unburden themselves of societal pressures to lead a happy life, a life they want to live become the soul of the stories and become the main characters of their lives.
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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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