Cool Ladies Club | Mast Mahila Mandali – Dharamshala International Film Festival

Ten women from the eastern suburbs of Mumbai sign up for a filmmaking workshop. Not even knowing where the record button is, they plunge into a messy, immersive process of making a film together. Stealing time away from family and daily chores, they turn the camera on themselves and each other, capturing life of the city’s working-class, while talking about husbands, murders, toilets, and everything in between. Evolved from an 18-month process in co-creation, Mast Mahila Mandali is a riotous, plotless, genre-bending documentary about how women labour, love, and claim joy in everyday life.

Director Bio

Anjum Shaikh, Darshana Mayekar, Gauri Rane, Kavita Ghuge, Kavita Khomne, Nazneen Siddiqui, Rehana Shaikh, Rohini Kadam, Sheetal Navle, Shilpi Gulati and Vaishali Mane

Anjum Shaikh, Darshana Mayekar, Gauri Rane, Kavita Khomne, Rehana Shaikh, Kavita Ghuge, Nazneen Siddiqui, Rohini Kadam, Sheetal Nawle and Vaishali Mane are community leaders, sanitation workers, toilet operators and daily wage earners from Mumbai’s M East Ward. They are all associated with the Right to Pee Campaign, a grassroots initiative launched by CORO India to demand free, clean and safe sanitation for women. Shilpi Gulati is a National Award-winning filmmaker and faculty member at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is also the film’s co-director and editor.

Cast & Crew

Producer: CORO India
Cinematographer: Anjum Shaikh, Darshana Mayekar, Gauri Rane, Kavita Ghuge, Kavita Khomne, Nazneen Siddiqui, Rehana Shaikh, Rohini Kadam, Sheetal Navle, Vaishali Mane
Editor: Shilpi Gulati
Sound: Anjum Shaikh, Darshana Mayekar, Gauri Rane, Kavita Ghuge, Kavita Khomne, Nazneen Siddiqui, Rehana Shaikh, Rohini Kadam, Sheetal Navle, Vaishali Mane