Kapadia’s short film Afternoon Clouds was screened at Cannes in 2017. She won the Golden Eye award for the best documentary in 2021 for A Night of Knowing Nothing. She has arrived on the stage now with the top prize and will remain the face of India in the years to come.
It is important that a woman director has earned her stripes by telling the story of two women in an India that is witnessing changes in social relations, gender norms and other areas.
Her film is a story of two Kerala nurses living in Mumbai, and stars actors Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam. Kapadia and others have shown that there is an artistic alternative to the dazzle of Bollywood and good cinema can be done without big budgets and with actors who have no star value. It is the creative spirit that matters, and not just variations of a formula.
There is fresh ground being broken by young directors and actors, and it is remarkable that many of them are women telling women’s stories.