'Cool Ladies Club' is directed by 10 working-class women. They live up to the title
These ten women from a working-class neighborhood in Mumbai were completely new to film-making. They got smart phones and started filming their lives. Here they pose with filmmaker Shilpi Gulati, taught them filmmaking basics. Gulati, wearing red, stands at the far right in the s
These ten women from a working-class neighborhood in Mumbai were completely new to film-making. They got smart phones and started filming their lives. Here they pose with filmmaker Shilpi Gulati, taught them filmmaking basics. Gulati, wearing red, stands at the far right in the second row. Mangesh Gudekar/School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS. hide caption
It's the first scene in a new documentary. A group of women are being taught how to use their phone cameras so they can make a documentary about their lives as domestic workers, community health workers, toilet operators and home caregivers. The voice of their instructor is heard talking about the things they need to think about: composing a frame, lighting, holding the camera still.
One woman raises her hand and asks: "Where is the record button?"
Inexperience didn't keep them from fulfilling their dream. These 10 working class women from Mumbai are the co-directors of the new movie Mast Mahila Mandali –- that's Hindi for Cool Ladies Club –- which had its premiere this spring in Mumbai's iconic, 1930s art-deco style Regal theater for an audience of 1,200 that included families and neighbors of the novice directors as well as cinephiles and media professionals.
The title came from Shilpi Gulati, the filmmaker they worked with and who taught them filmmaking basics. She suggested it at a meeting of the ten women. They deliberated over it and thought it fit the spirit of the film, pushing back against the idea that they are helpless women from the slums.
"For me, a 'cool lady' is someone who is bindaas — relaxed, fearless and does whatever comes to her heart," says Rehana Shaikh, 32, a home caregiver and one of the ten selected to take part in this project.
The idea was to show what their lives are like — and also to show how cool they are by giving them a chance to express their creativity and just goof around on camera and have fun.
The idea for the film took root in 2024, when Supriya Jan, who works in grassroots knowledge building at CORO India, a nonprofit group that focuses on teaching leadership skills to marginalized women to give them a better life. Her initial idea was to focus on the group's Right to Pee campaign, which advocates for safe, clean and free public toilets. And she wanted women from the impoverished M-east ward to make the film rather than hiring an outsider.
