After tackling a taboo subject in R Balki’s 2017 film PadMan, Twinkle Khanna is back again, to address periods and pads. Marking World Menstrual Hygiene on May 28, the actress-turned-writer released a short film on periods and menstrual hygiene. Directed by Mozez Singh, the ten-minute film is titled First Period, is set in a surreal world where men experience mensuration.
The film opens up with a little boy Ayush, refusing to go to school because he is on his first day of his period. However, support from family and friends help him tackle the situation without shying away. From heading to the nearby store to buy sanitary pads to talking about it openly to his family and friends, menstruation is shown in a whole new light in this 10-minute film. Bringing a sensitive issue like this to the forefront, from a boy’s viewpoint, the director leaves the audience with just one question – What about our girls?
The film ends with statistical facts about menstruation and the way mothers teach their daughters to deal with it.
Reminds one of Gloria Steinem’s essay where she writes, “So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, worthy, masculine event.”
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Director Singh said, “When I was approached by Dasra, the NGO behind the film alongside The Gates Foundation, their brief was they wanted men to be involved in the conversation about menstrual hygiene. So, we wrote a script where we showed everything from a man’s point of view and how in that world it’s all perfect and empowering. It raises the question why can’t this happen in a woman’s world and forces you to neutralise gender disparity. First Period is another voice in that conversation, ” as reported by DNA.
Take a look: