The recent Dalit representation in Indian cinema has arrived with nuanced attributes, distinct from the earlier cinematic portrayal that mostly depicted them as victims of caste atrocities and violence. The new representation in the recent Hindi, Tamil, and Marathi films and on various over-the-top platforms has progressively identified Dalits as the part of a greater
Bombay Begums, Netflix India’s six-part series that premiered on International Women’s Day.
In under six hours, we see a
spectrum of women pre-pubescent to menopausal, urban elite to underprivileged, big-city movers-and-shakers to small-town lasses, banker to bar dancer navigating their way through cut-throat Bombay.
A
plethora of issues loveless marriages and infidelity; infertility and surrogacy; boardroom politics and workplace sexual harassment; teenage heartbreaks and substance abuse; alternative sexualities and gender power plays are touched upon.
So much so that you wish there was less of it. And more of the less.
The five leads of Bombay Begums | Photo: Netflix
Watch | Pooja Bhatt and Alankrita Srivastava talk about ‘Bombay Begums’
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In conversation with Pooja Bhatt and Alankrita Srivastava on Bombay Begums
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Set in the high stakes world of banking and finance,
Bombay Begums follows Rani (Pooja Bhatt), Fatima (Shahana Goswami), Ayesha (Plabita Borthakur), Lily (Amruta Subhash) and Shai (Aadhya Anand), whose circumstances are different but whose lives are interconnected.
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Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare has trained her lens to examine the ‘complex inner lives of women’.
The filmmaker joins Bhatt in a conversation with
The Hindu Weekend about Netflix India’s latest offering.
Alankrita Shrivastava explores the mind and the battles inside it in her new series telegraphindia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraphindia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bombay Begums Has a Point of View Which It Constantly Forces Down the Viewersâ Throat
Poor acting mars the sloppily written film, which could have offered so much more.
A still from the Netflix show Bombay Begums .
The six-part Netflix series
Bombay Begums, written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, revolves around Rani (Pooja Bhatt), the CEO of Royal Bank of Bombay. Her success story has the ring of a resounding epic: a bank teller from Kanpur heading a major financial institution. The other protagonists, Fatima (Shahana Goswami), Ayesha (Plabita Borthakur), and Lily (Amruta Subhash), are as hungry.
Fatima has been offered the role of the bankâs deputy managing director. Sheâs inclined to accept it, but her husband, Arija (Vivek Gomber), expects her to take care of the baby. Ayesha, a young ambitious woman from Indore, fired by Fatima, is given a chance by Rani to work in the bankâs Corporate Social Responsibility division. Lily, a bar dancer turned