Sivaranjini’s superb, award-winning Malayalam debut feature Victoria, is almost entirely set in a women’s beauty parlour. The space is a women’s confessional, a refuge from men, a brief respite from lifelong slave labour to their families

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Malayalam cinema continues its run at the vanguard of Indian cinema. This time, through Sivaranjini’s Victoria, a chamber drama almost entirely set in a single room — a women’s beauty parlour. The film won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Debut Malayalam Film at the International Film Festival of Kerala, and Meenakshi Jayan, playing Victoria, won the Best Actress Award in the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent section. The film is one of a surge of feminist films in Malayalam in recent years, including Ullozhukku/Undercurrent, Kaathal — the Core, Feminist Fathima, The Great Indian Kitchen, Uyare, B 32 Muthal 44 Vare and Stand Up. Victoria was produced by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation’s (KSFDC) Women’s Empowerment scheme, to produce films by women filmmakers — that other states must emulate........

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