Angry Indian Goddesses

It's something that you don't usually get to see from indian cinema, hitting the progressive topics and questioning the society's hypocritical attitudes towards woman. Its a worthwhile film.

Oh my goodness, this movie was amazing! I recently re-watched the movie via Netflix and still love it. The beginning scene of the movie where you are introduced to the characters and their personalities is perfect, diving into their backstory without having to do flashbacks throughout the movie. Within the first few minutes of the movie you get a sense of the underlying story beyond the main characters. I watched this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) back in 2015 where, I believe, it was still looking for a major film distributor. The movie was so popular that the festival added a 4th screening and it came second for People's Choice Award (almost unheard of for a foreign movie without a major distributor going into the festival). I remember the actors being introduced with the director after the movie and the group seemed to be good friends, which helped with the on screen performance. Interestingly enough, some scenes, especially at the beginning of the movie, were almost entirely improvised and the director just kept the camera rolling (cool right?). What you get is a completely realistic friendship between the actors which helps the audience relate to the story. The story has a very strong feminist plot, but I believe this is an incredibly important story to watch with its relevance in the world today.

Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) is an Indian movie co-written and directed by Pan Nalin. In my summary, I wrote "actually two movies." By that I meant that the first three-quarters of the film is a happy "buddy movie" among six intelligent, capable women. Each of them encounters misogyny and sexism in their day-to-day lives. They deal with this negative aspect of their lives in different ways, but none of them can avoid having to deal with it.

One of the women has returned to her home in Goa, the former Portuguese colony. She invites her friends to join her for her wedding. For the next hour-and-a-half the women sing together, dance together, talk together, and sometimes argue. There's a serious conflict between two of them. One is a local activist trying to stop the ecological destruction caused by a factory. The factory is being built by a company whose CEO is another one of the guests. So, it's not all love and laughter, but mostly that's what it is.

After the "first movie" has run its course, the "second movie" begins. This is a serious, terrible part of the film. In retrospect we might have seen it coming, but I didn't expect it. The film takes on a serious documentary-type aspect, and ends with an extremely dramatic scene. You may like or dislike the last half-hour of the film, but you won't forget it.

The actors in this film were all excellent. They played well in ensemble. Also, they are all extremely beautiful. It struck me as unlikely that all the friends would be so attractive. However, that's the decision director Nalin made. Nalin is male. I don't know if a female director would have made the same choice.

The movie will work best on the large screen, because you'll have a better feel for the scenic beauty of the Goan location. However, even if you have to watch it on the small screen, I'd still recommend it.

We saw the film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as part of the outstanding ImageOut LGBT Film Festival. I suggest you seek it out and see it. It's not perfect, but it's still a great movie.

The story is an average one of a all girl bachelor party, that being the set up and the focus on issues that are related to Indian women. Nothing out of the box issues or the way it is handled. The ending had to have some drama, and it has, again nothing out of the box. The editing could have been crispier, will give a 6 out of 10 there.

Those were the flaws, now comes the good part.

Genuinely superb acting from 3 of the 7 leads, I know 2-3 of them and not by name or at least I didn't. I do not know whether to credit the director or the actors, but it was a superb performance from the actors.

Hilarious at times, crude at time, raunchy at times but you will enjoy it. That the director took the initiative of making these girls as crude as 'Masti', was enough for me to watch the movie. I do not see too many Hindi movies, but I never expected words like D*#do, Or#$@sm and stuff like that ad the way the scenes were handled were brilliant.

The characters were genuinely alive, you see them everyday. You feel like you know them, the problems they face in everyday life is very common to me and you and girls lusting over shirtless guys and things like that captured the free spirited modern Indian lady so well.

The script could have been tighter, but still it was very very good. The director really took the best from the actors, especially (let me check the name) Pavleen Gujral, brilliant as the ex-gold-medalist-now-housewife r,ole showing her hesitations as a typical Indian woman and Sarah Dias's superb restraint acting towards the end of the movie. Sandhya Mridul was a little over the top, still good, Anushka was good at times, never bad and the rest were also good, if not great.

Watch the movie just because of the acting, timing and mainly the way the director has beautifully set up the screenplay. I fast forwarded the Salman starrer super predictable Sultan in 1.15 hours, couldn't complete the hamming of the legendary AB in Te3n and Piku, but I was able to watch this movie in one go. If you are getting my drift, you will enjoy the movie.

It is a must watch for every urban man and woman of the age group of 20 to 50. Forget the theme, just enjoy the movie and make sure your kids are not nearby.

Hats off to the new generation of Indian women and to the director

Angry Indian goddesses may be good movie for world cinema but is an important movie for Indian cinema. Though there have been movies showing difficulties faced by females in Indian society none has been so comprehensive.

Almost every other dialogue quips the hypocrisy of Indian mindset. They have been allowed to fly,but, that like a kite with everybody actively controlling their limits. With such different characters, common thread joining them all is anguish against the society venerating and denigrating females at the same time.

Nalin has given another brilliant piece of cinema with strong female characters like the ones we worship. Cinematography is enchanting using the right balance of light and dark.

Only God knows what censor board has been trying to censor when everything is so true...