Shlilatahanir Pore cast discusses significance of International Women's Day

The cast of Reshmi Mitra’s upcoming film Shlilatahanir Pore gathered for a round table discussion on International Women’s Day. Actresses Sreela Majumdar, Rayati Bhattacharya and Devlina Kumar spoke about the film and discussed the sorry state of women as well as the significance of the day in our country. Shlilatahanir Pore is based on a novel by Mallika Sengupta.

The film focuses on the mental and physical trauma that victims of rape and other kinds of physical and mental abuse have to go through in our country. “Often we see that the victims take to hiding and, instead of exposing the perpetrator of the crime, unconsciously shield them due to the social stigma,” stated Mitra.

The film features three strong female characters — a political figure who gets mentally harassed by her husband, a victim of abuse at the workplace and a labourer.

“At the end of the film, the victims successfully return to their lives, which gives a positive message,” said Mitra, who also spoke about how women are now equally participating in every field of work and gradually, all the gender-specific work titles are getting dismissed.

Majumdar believes every day should be considered Women’s Day. “Women work at their respective workplaces and then they have to do household chores as well. This should not be the case and, instead, all the household chores and responsibilities should be shared equally by women and men,” she said.

The acclaimed actress also said that International Women’s Day often seems like a consolation prize in light of the atrocities that are inflicted on women. She believes after a certain age all relationships turn into friendships and, hence, there should no gender discrimination anyway. If the purpose of Women’s Day is to inspire and motivate women and then that should be a regular activity not a single day, she said.

Bhattacharya said she normally feels hesitant while speaking of Women’s Day as the idea of choosing a separate day for making people aware of the rights of women seems quite regressive at this juncture while Kumar said the idea of Narimukti has a long way to go. "Narimukti will be fully attained on the day women roam around freely at night anywhere in any part of the world," she said.

Shilatahanir Pore is slated to be released on 12 March.