Last year Bollywood made a North Indian-ised biopic on the ‘Menstrual Man of India’, Arunachalam Muruganantham, with the Akshay Kumar-starrer Pad Man. Muruganantham had already been the subject of the prize-winning documentary Menstrual Man by Amit Virmani, as well as Phullu by Abhishek Saxena. But now, yet another film, a short documentary called ‘Period. End of Sentence’ based on Muruganantham, his work, and how it has affected the lives of real women across India, has received the Oscar nod.
It has made it to the 91st Oscar’s in the top five nominees of the Documentary Short Subject category.
Created by The Pad Project, an organisation established by the students and their teacher Melissa Berton ,of the Oakwood School in Los Angeles, the film has been directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi.
One of the boss lady’s of Bollywood, producer Guneet Monga, is the executive producer of the film that has been co-produced by Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, which has produced films like The Lunchbox and Masaan. Monga had earlier shared the news of the documentary being shortlisted on her social media platforms.
‘Period. End Of Sentence’ is among the 5 films that were chosen from a total of 104 entries. It follows the story of the women in northern India’s Hapur and how their lives have been affected by the installation of a pad machine in their village. The easy-to-operate and low-cost pad machine is an invention of Muruganantham that uses readily available materials in India to produce sanitary napkins.
After Village Rockstars, which was in the running for Foreign Language Film Category, has dropped out of the race. As has the Norwegian drama What Will People Say, starring Adil Hussain and Ekavali Khanna in lead roles. So, here’s hoping ‘Period. End Of Sentence’ brings the trophy home!
