By Our Staff Reporter
New Delhi, 21 Apr: House of Harmony, a literary endeavour by authors Dr Harshali Singh and Mona Verma wrapped up its 1st Edition, Spring Fest 2023, in the capital city on Sunday.
Speaking at the finale of the literary conclave, well-known filmmaker-actor and branding specialist Rahul Mittra spoke on women in films, citing interesting anecdotes and facts from Indian cinema. His ‘Saheb Biwi aur Gangster’ trilogy changed the context of Indian cinema from NRI-centric films to the Indian heartland, apart from strong portrayal of women characters. His other film, Kangana Ranaut starrer ‘Revolver Rani’, also saw the main female character as just naughty, unabashedly sexual and complex, something which was the domain of men earlier.
Speaking to a full house, Mittra drew the audience’s attention to the changing women characters in films from that of a mother, maiden, mistress to strong layered ones, currently, and stressed on the need to end under-representation of women both on and off screen. Due to this disparity, female characters in Indian cinema have been presented through the eyes of a largely male perspective, resulting in stereotypes and gender biases. “Women in cinema have to get past this male gaze,” asserted Mittra.
Powered by Kunzum, an emerging bookstore giant in Delhi, the Spring Fest 2023 was attended by eminent writers, poets, social change makers, journalists and filmmakers.
The founders of House of Harmony, Dr Harshali Singh and Mona Verma, lent a platform to many new writers and performers
who created a cheery ambience with their performances. The audience was glued to the panel discussions on broad spectrum issues ranging from relevance of AI, impact of war, writings by medical professionals, various shades of women, sensuality in history and mythology, gender fluidity and role of women in Indian cinema.
The event was attended by filmmaker-actor Rahul Mittra, Major General GD Bakshi (Retd), Vinita Nangia, Executive Editor, Columnist-Times Of India, Author, Director-Times Literature Festivals & Write India, Social activists Mahamandaleshwar Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi and Anurag Chauhan, Founder, Humans for Humanity, eminent lawyer and founder of KLF, Sumant Batra, Shishir Sinha – Associate Editor with the Hindu Business Line, Sandeep Unnithan – editor at News9 plus and Dr Alka Pande – art curator and historian, Dipankar Mukherjee – founder and publisher at Readomania, Ajay Jain, Founder, Kunzum, and his team led by Subir Dey and Shantanu Roy-editor-in-chief at Om Books, amongst an array of other well known writers and performers.
Mona and Harshali said, “We are overwhelmed by the stupendous response to our maiden edition and now look forward to expanding the portfolio.’
