Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality is pleased to invite you to 'Parde Ke Peeche Kya Hai? Cinema, Desire and Fantasy', on April 27, a day full of cinema and conversation.

Join us for a special screening of City Girls (by Priya Thuvassery, The Third Eye Films), My Other Self is Plastic (by Khushi Bano, The Third Eye Films), Mandi (by Yashovardhan Mishra) and Ebb (by Jeo Baby).

The screenings will be followed by lunch for the audience.

The event will conclude with a panel discussion featuring Jeo Baby, Shabani Hassanwalia, and Yashowardhan Mishra on cinema and desire, moderated by Ananya Dasgupta. With the panel, we will interrogate how cinema produces, manages and circulates desires. We will engage with films, not just as a platform for representation, but as an affective machinery that, in conversation with society, culture and the law, negotiates with legible and illegible desires.

SCHEDULE

12 PM – Screening of City Girls (2021)

12.40 PM – Screening of My Other Self is Plastic (2025)

12.55 PM – Screening of Mandi (2019)

1.15 PM – Screening of Ebb (2025)

— LUNCH—

3.30 PM – 5.30 PM – Panel Discussion and Q&A with Jeo Baby, Shabani Hassanwalia, and Yashowardhan Mishra

⭐ Venue: AC01 LR-207

About the Panellists:

Jeo Baby is known for his incisive explorations of family, gender, and everyday life. His films include 2 Penkuttikal (2016), Kilometers and Kilometers (2020), The Great Indian Kitchen (2021), Freedom Fight (2022), and Kaathal – The Core (2023). The Great Indian Kitchen received widespread critical acclaim and won several honours, including the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and recognition at multiple international film festivals.

Shabani Hassanwalia is a writer and a filmmaker, and producer at The Third Eye. Her feature documentaries include Being Bhaijaan (2014), Gali (2017), and Out of Thin Air (2009), which played on MUBI and won multiple national and international festivals.

Yashowardhan Mishra’s film Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery (2023) won the Best Hindi Film award at the 71st National Film Awards, marking his emergence as a distinctive new voice in Hindi cinema. His work blends satire and social realism, often exploring class and gender dynamics in small-town India.

About the Moderator: Ananya Dasgupta is a Writing Faculty member of Critical Inquiry and Expression at the Young India Fellowship. She is a student of literature, film, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. She studied English Literature at Jadavpur University before working on her doctoral thesis at IIT Bombay and Monash University.

We hope to see you there!