The Woman... and the Man (2016)

"The Woman... and The Man" is a short film by Sarmistha Maiti and Rajdeep Paul which deals with the peculiarities of the male gaze and how it leads to the objectification of the female identity. The film takes a nuanced look into the growing infatuation of a young milkman from the lower strata of the society towards a stunningly a stunningly sensuous and free spirited woman whom he sees in the balcony of a big house while delivering milk pouches every morning. As the woman becomes the exotic element of his sexual fantasies he starts belittling his own plain-Jane wife, until a cruel twist of fate challenges the man to question the way he looks at women and his very notion of beauty. The film takes a critical look at the attitude towards women and the hypocrisy prevalent in our society and addresses how the patriarchal structure of the society leads to an atmosphere of gender discrimination and acts as a hurdle to women's emancipation.