Feminist Films Push Boundaries In India
Typically, India's Bollywood film industry depicts older women as maternal and virtuous. Younger ones often are eye candy, propping up male leads. But a recent crop of films is showing more complex female characters, training a spotlight exclusively on the lives of women — and, even more unusually, on their sexuality.
The lighthearted Lipstick Under My Burkha, two years in the making, is one new film taking female roles in a new direction. It follows the "secret lives" of four women living in the Old City of Bhopal. Director Alankrita Shrivastava says she wanted to explore how women in small, traditional urban centers are identifying with the new, aspirational India.
"It's really bubbling in small towns," Shrivastava says.
"They can see this new India, and it's within reach — that mall is a bus ride
