A Handful of Stories

Reportage on health, science and politics. And some meditations on film

Tag: Zubeida

The Song of the Market: Benegal, Bhansali and the Tryst with the Performing Woman

Tracing the obsession of the two filmmakers with the figure of the courtesan, actor, and sex-worker, often rolled into one lonely, headstrong character type Notice the similarity in posture in the poster for Mandi (Benegal, 1983, top photo) and Gangubai Kathiawadi (Bhansali, 2022). What else do you notice? Although the web series Heeramandi was all over our screens in the…