1. Sehmat in Raazi

Based on ex-Naval officer, Harinder Sikka’s novel “Calling Sehmat” and directed by Meghna Gulzar – Alia Bhatt portrayed the lead role of Sehmat – an Indian Kashmiri woman and an undercover agent who gathered classified intelligence information for Indian Defence forces during 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Sehmat’s journey from a college-going girl to being trained as a spy, marrying a Pakistani army officer – Alia portrayed the emotional conflict of patriotism, loyalty and betrayal to the family where she married – resonated with the difficult choices Sehmat made and lived for her people.

2. Rumi in Manmarziyaan

Manmarziyaan was a love triangle based in a small-town with its lead female character Rumi played by Tapsee Pannu. Tapsee portrayed fierce character of a girl with her “devil-may-care” attitude whose torn between turmoil of emotions for her family and two men in her life – one the “passionate, wild but irresponsible lover” and the other “husband material”. There won’t be dearth of Indian girls who have had to make that similar choice in their lives. Her red hair, hockey stick and sexual independence stood out although we hoped to see true freedom from this character in terms of having an actual career and financial independence. This movie had an interesting take on arranged marriages in India for millennials.

3. Naina Mathur in Hichki

Bollywood’s attempts of understanding lives of specially-abled have been inadequate so far, barring few exceptions. Rani Mukerji’s portrayal of Naina Mathur, a woman with Tourette’s syndrome trying to make her mark as a teacher with a unique bunch of students. Rani’s character tries to transform her daunting hurdles to strengths and paints a story of hope and inspiration for all of us fighting different battles in their lives.

Naina’s approach towards education and teaching/parenting ideas is also quite a highlight in the movie. In this world of rat race and percentage driven education grading system, where kids are constantly under pressure to perform and be all-rounders – how conceptual and experimental learning has potential to transform the minds of young children is noteworthy to all the parents and teachers out there.

4. Kalindi, Avni, Sakshi and Meera – Veere Di Wedding

The movie that first came across as desi version of Hollywood drama “Sex and the City” was one of the firsts in terms of showing female friendships in Hindi films. The bro code has dominated Hindi films as in Sholay, Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

However, Veere Di Wedding’s female characters were quite real for today’s times and stepped out of the quintessential Ms. Goody two shoes image of Hindi movie female lead and wore their flaws, insecurities on their sleeves.

Whether it is Kalindi’s commitment phobia owing to her parents’ failed relationship, Shikha Talsania’s character managing her marriage and motherhood while searching her lost self or Swara’s character that is unapologetic about indulging in self pleasure – these shades of a woman’s life and her emotions are hardly ever portrayed in Hindi movies and we were glad that these aspects were talked about in mainstream cinema.

5. Priyamvada Kaushik in ‘Badhaai Ho’

Do elderly couples have sex? Yes, they do. Yes, they can if they want to. A grown-up son in dilemma of facing his parents’ late pregnancy and the social taboo attached to it.

Indian mothers are supposed to be asexual and pure creatures. Someone looking to fulfill personal desires— whether through her work or by being sexually active—must only do so at a heavy cost that brings displeasure to the family and removes her from the stature of the ‘ideal mother’. We sometimes forget that mothers are also individuals. They too have dreams and desires of their own.

Badhaai Ho helped in highlighting an important debate about late pregnancies. Women across the world, including India, are now choosing to have children at a later age.

But regardless, we cannot put a bar or limit to desire for love, sex and physical affection for elderly, it is their life, their right and choice and we as a family or as a society have to learn to be non-judgmental about it.

6. Gayatri and Pari Walia – Padman

While we fought on whether women should be given entry inside Sabarimala temple or not – 2018 was still the year when the womankind was battling with taboos and myths related to menstruation. Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor starrer Padman which was biography of Arunachalam Murugunathan, who revolutionised the concept of sanitary pad distribution in India by creating a low-cost machine. This was the first movie in Bollywood that took up the feminine hygiene, menstrual taboos as the centre plot of the story. The movie talks about the two contrasting pictures of India – one represented by Radhika Apte’s character – Gayatri – a naïve, innocent, rural Indian woman who would prefer to suffer in misery during her periods rather than use a sanitary napkin owing to lack of awareness and societal taboo around menstruation and another Sonam’s character – Pari Walia, a tabla artist and a modern, educated woman who helps Akshay’s character on his journey for menstrual health awareness.

7. Women of “Lust stories”, Netflix

These four women are brought together by a shared theme of lust – YES!

The first story is laced with a darkness, stars Radhika Apte as Kalindi, a fiery college professor who initiates a rather iffy sexual relationship with one of her students. But as the plot progresses – each short is roughly 30 minutes long, give or take a few – so does the characters’ status quo.  Bhumi Pednekar’s Sudha is the antithesis of Kalindi – cool, in control of her emotions, and near-silent. Sudha is a maid who has entered into a sexual relationship with the bachelor at whose house she works. But unlike Sudha, Reena – the protagonist of the third short, directed by Dibakar Banerjee and easily the best of the lot – feels no shame in what she does. She might not have much feeling left in her at all, after the years of psychological abuse she’s faced at the hands of her husband. Manipulative, seductive, supremely confident yet so vulnerable, Manisha Koirala is perfectly cast. The fourth one, features the least complex protagonist of the quartet – Kiara Advani’s small-town wife discovers the wonders of a vibrator in a scene. It’s the only film of the four whose protagonist doesn’t have to wrestle with their own unethical behaviour – like the repercussions of infidelity and harassment.