In this episode, we are thrilled to be watching and discussing a Bangladeshi favorite Third Person Singular Number made by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki - one of the most famous contemporary directors from Bangladesh.We’ve also had the pleasure of having Raidah of raidahcal on this episode. She does wonderful work addressing contemporary feminist issues in Dhaka, Bangladesh. While we all had different takes on the movie, it was wonderful to have Raidah’s unique insights and perspectives.The movie is centered around Ruba – shown to be struggling with harassment, housing insecurity, and unemployment in the aftermath of her partner’s conviction. Though starting off on a dark note, the movie is conceptualized as a fairytale and to some degree, even a romance.Ruba is an independent and determined character. And the movie was remarkable in its use of the feminine gaze as well as modernist means of storytelling – employing devices such as an unreliable narrator and Freud-inspired depictions of internal psychological conflict.Read the full show notes to find out how it fared on our Sauce Meter!For more on the episodes, check out the extended Show Notes for additional reading material, explanations, and videos. More available on SareesOnScreen.com- - -[Music Prod. By LuKremBo]Advisory

Sarees on Screen

Saucy Deep Dives: Third Person Singular Number ft. Raidahcal

Open conversations around sex and sexuality continue to be taboo in our society, but it’s been great to see a segment of people start to chip away at that reluctance to talk about such a fundamental part of all our lives.While we absolutely value the importance of sharing lived experiences, in this episode, we specifically looked at the media we consume - how it portrays sex and sexualities of women and marginalized people, and how it shapes the greater societal conversations around these issues.Something we hoped to highlight in our analysis was that sex and sexuality is experienced very differently by everyone. The specific socio-economic and cultural locations that shape our identities empower and disempower us in different ways, thus also changing how we engage with sex and our sexualities. Even in a lot of the more “progressive” feminist portrayals of sex and sexuality in South Asia, there is often a general disconnect about the material realities of women and marginalized people. Despite being less objectifying and dehumanizing, a lot of feminist portrayals still fall short in their ability to present realistic portrayals of marginalized people due to their upholding of the upper caste, upper class, and capitalistic gaze.In this episode, we look into Lust Stories, Parched, and Rajkahini. Each of these movies claim to have progressive and positive portrayals of women, sexuality, and sex work. While beautiful cinematically and made by some of the most notable directors in India today, have these movies pushed the boundaries of healthier portrayals of sex and sexuality in our media?Listen to find out.Our next episode is a Saucy Deep Dive on Third Person Singular Number.- - -For more on the episodes, check out the extended Show Notes for additional reading material, explanations, and videos.  More available on SareesOnScreen.com- - -[Music Prod. By LuKremBo]Advisory

Sex and Sexuality in South Asian Media

For this episode, we watched Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham, the iconic Karan Johar movie that shaped Y2K culture in South Asia. It has a special place in our hearts, but how does it fare on an intersectional feminist film rating system? Listen to find out.- - -Once every month, we host our “Saucy Deep Dive” episodes. On these, we do a more casual breakdown of classics we all love and love-to-hate. And sometimes we’ll have guests join in on the fun. Our framework for these discussions is based on the Sauce Meter, discussed in Episode 1 (For more details check out our blog  https://bit.ly/3iNnKaT).The questions we ask ourselves address patriarchal, classist, casteist, and ableist structures (and more) in South Asian culture. While still not comprehensive by any means, it sets up the base for a more critical examination of the popular movies we all know.Our next episode will examine: Sex and Sexuality in South Asian Media - - - For more on the episodes, check out the extended Show Notes for additional reading material, explanations, and videos.   More available on SareesOnScreen.com  - - - [Music Prod. By LuKremBo]Advisory

Saucy Deep Dives: Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham

In our first ever episode, we tackle how pop culture and mainstream media in Bollywood portray women and marginalized characters. To contextualize our discussion, we took note of the male and feminine gazes in cinema and art, and how they uphold (or subvert) traditional ideas of gender roles, social and power dynamics, and other forms of identity privilege. For this episode, we specifically chose some recent films and shows coming out of Bollywood that marketed themselves as feminist works. Our watchlist included blockbusters like Veere di Wedding and Four More Shots Please! as well as critically acclaimed media like Lipstick Under My Burkha, Sir, Bulbbul, and Made in Heaven.Our next episode is a Saucy Deep Dive on Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham.- - -For more on the episodes, check out the extended Show Notes for additional reading material, explanations, and videos. More available on SareesOnScreen.com- - -[Music Prod. By LuKremBo]Advisory

Modern Feminist Narratives in Bollywood

Discussions about social issues in South Asia are often limited by stigmatization and the lack of accessible vocabulary, especially, when tackling prominent feminist topics.This forced us to think about the media we consume and how it is succeeding (or failing) to help further conversations around patriarchy, class, caste, and capitalism in our countries.Join us as we bring queer brown feminist perspectives to all of our favorite films and shows to tackle these difficult topics.- - -Check out our website SareesOnScreen.com for expanded show notes and additional content.[Music Prod. by LuKremBo]

Sarees On Screen: Trailer

Podcast on South Asian Politics, Patriarchy and Pop Culture. Hosted by two queer brown feminists. New episodes every other Friday. Visit SareesOnScreen.com for show notes and additional content.

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Sarees on Screen

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