'Angry Indian Goddesses' talk about all things feminine and feminist

From left: Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul, Sarah Jane Dias, Pavleen Gujral and Rajshri Deshpande at the mid-day office.

When five women of substance - Sandhya Mridul, Anushka Manchanda, Pavleen Gujral, Sarah-Jane Dais and Rajshri Deshpande - visited the mid-day office recently for a no-holds barred chat, it turned out to be one amusing conversation.

From left: Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul, Sarah Jane Dias, Pavleen Gujral and Rajshri Deshpande at the mid-day office. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

The five actresses, who feature in the upcoming film, Angry Indian Goddesses, touch upon all things feminine and feminist.

Excerpts from the conversation:

State of affairs
Sandhya: The film plays out like as a conversation about recent, critical issues plaguing the country - things that make your blood boil and piss you off. Today, people start receiving threats for posting anything on their personal social media accounts. That is ridiculous. There is no freedom of speech. We are supposed to be a democracy.

Anushka: We don't live in a democracy. We live in hypocrisy. We are hypocrites. Passing comments at women on the streets is common.

Rajshri: I recently visited an NGO where I met a girl who suffered burns after a random person threw acid on her.

Pavleen: If something pops up in front of our eyes that we can't ignore, it makes us angry.

Male bashing

Anushka: I don't know why people are assuming that we would bash men in the film; as if we don't have a life.

Sarah: Feminism, just like spirituality, is easily misconstrued. Somehow, I find that even though we are progressing rapidly, people need to put things into boxes. So, the general perception is that if seven women are in one film, they must be bashing men. It's like they don't have a life and can't talk about other things.

Sandhya: We love men. We know of a lot of supportive men. I think feminist is not a bad word; it's just about standing up for yourself.

Also read: Pan Nalin: 'Angry Indian Goddesses' not about male-bashing

(Compiled by Anirban Das)