Bhuvi Gupta

Ever since I watched Lipstick Under My Burkha & Made in Heaven, I have followed the work of its writer-director, Alankrita Srivastava, for her realistic portrayal of Indian women who get a raw deal in most hero-centric Bollywood films - even with changing trends, their characterization is mostly starkly black or white and uni-dimensional. Dolly-Kitty which tells the story of two cousins i.e. Dolly & Kitty in Lower-middle class India, doesn't disappoint. Multiple subplots are explored in the story, around the central theme if how societal expectations from Indian women shackle and suffocate them through every stage of their lives; women at every age have a different set of expectations they are expected to live by, and if they don’t abide by them, society has created behaviours and terminologies to put them in their place. Stories about 'real' India if you have subscribed to Prime & Netflix seem to be limited to the mafia & goons which abound in small cities and seem fascinating because they are largely unrelatable. In Dolly-Kitty, we get to see the emotions and lives of women, who are similar to people we know. The many trials that women encounter in middle-class life are touched upon but as background elements and don't get resolution in the 2 -hour film - I felt that was realistic as many times people live and make peace with such issues without ever getting closure. These sub plots include the incomplete construction scams of scores of housing societies in Greater Noida, frayed relationships that Dolly has with her mother, her son struggling with his gender, etc. I also liked how Greater Noida has been used as an element in the story-telling to connote the aspirations and ambitions of the middle -class. The treatment is both slow and the ending is a bit hurried to tie up the loose ends that are touched upon. Konkana Sen Sharma's depiction of Dolly and her struggles carries the movie, with Bhumi Pednekar providing a decent supporting performance. Watch Dolly-Kitty for its stellar story telling and the depiction of realistic stories of actual women, variations of which are most likely playing out in India right now.