Shoma A. Chatterji

Pratyabartan is a new Bengali film which gets across the message about a “return to one’s roots” by an urban, upward-climbing neutral family who are settled in Kolkata. The film opens on an upwardly mobile, slightly Westernised nuclear Bengali family settled in Kolkata. What happens when their teenage daughter, studying in an elitist, English-medium school, falls back on her academics as she is addicted to her cell-phone. While Dr. Dipankar Sanyal (Shilajit Majumdar) has a very business...

The death of Twisha Sharma has reignited uncomfortable questions about dowry, domestic abuse and family power structures. Last week, scrolling through some reels on my cell phone trying to find out more about the Twisha Sharma case, I came across a reel on Kiran Bedi’s views on the girl’s tragic end. For some reason, the reel was dubbed in Bengali. I was shocked at what Kiran Bedi said. She questioned why at all did Twisha Sharma, all of 33, well-educated with a career to fall back on, need...

From unpaid menstrual leave to clandestine hysterectomies, Beed district exposes the hidden violence of informal labour. Sugar is not as sweet as you think, especially if it is coming from Beed District in Maharashtra where hundreds of women workers in their reproductive age are not allowed paid menstrual leave. That is not the only inhuman practice invested in women. Based on 2026 reports, Beed district in Maharashtra is considered a major hub for sugarcane labour, sending approximately 1.75...