Even with its feminist gaze, Dabba Cartel’s biggest win is how it resists baking its narrative with one-note markers of gender and social identity. The result is a batch of hungry women out to hunt—sinking their teeth in this world to devour it to their heart’s content. By Sneha Bengani

Films like Mrs., The Great Indian Kitchen, Thappad, Dor, and more sparked widespread discussion about the value our society assigns to women’s labour and agency. Sarthak Parashar writes about how the impossible choices faced under patriarchal social obligations—in reel and real life.  

Jeo Baby’s remarkable film The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) is a critique of patriarchy in Indian households, a delicious recipe of a discomforting, cold dish. - By Deekshith Pai