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Menarche: Pruthvi Kunigal’s short film about a young girl attaining puberty is all about respecting women

The Kannada short film is currently streaming on the Youtube channel of KRG Studios

Menarche: Pruthvi Kunigal’s short film about a young girl attaining puberty is all about respecting women
A still from the short film, Menarche

Last Updated: 02.15 PM, Jul 17, 2022

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In the run-up to the release of the short film Menarche on its official Youtube channel, popular film production and distribution banner KRG Studios had presented a video of a social experiment that was conducted on the streets of Bengaluru.

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The video featured a young girl, presumably waiting for a family member, on a busy city street. The girl, though, appears to have stained her light-coloured trousers from having had her period, which she remains unaware of. Initially, people walk past her without offering advice or help, but as time wears on, several women, and a few men, across age groups, approach her. In a society where menstruation-related subjects are considered impure and taboo, the response by pretty much everyone was to tell the young girl to cover up any trace of the stain with her jacket, before proceeding to call her family to come and help her. A few even volunteered information on what a menstrual period is.

The social experiment had been conducted for Pruthvi Kunigal’s short film, which was released on the same platform. The film follows two orphaned siblings at a city slum, who lost their parents during the pandemic. When the elder sibling, a girl called Yasmeen, unexpectedly experiences severe stomach pain and begins to bleed, she is aghast, as she fails to comprehend what is happening to her. After running helter-skelter for help, her brother eventually manages to get aid from a couple of transgender women who were in the neighbourhood. They not only help clean up Yasmeen, but also explain to her what she has experienced and how that is going to be a part of her life every month. Something that’s not to be afraid of or looked down upon. It’s what makes her a woman and prepares her for life ahead, including motherhood.

The social awareness short features Kethana Manjunath, Chinmay Mahesh, RJ Priyanka and Asha Gowda, among others.  

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