Review of ‘Unlimited Girls’ by Paromita Vohra

To see a feminist commentary in the Indian context where you can identify the languages, slurs, the
accent, landmarks, jewelry, clothes, food, voices, narratives, newspapers, all objects in fact to some
extent makes the documentary very important and also engaging for me because we are usually used to
seeing very Westernized versions of ideas within India or western narratives directly. A lot of themes
picked up in the documentary pertain to Indian context, and that was a very refreshing take on what
constitutes feminism in this land.

Of course, the time frame is two decades old (2002), and maybe some women will have changed
answers to their lives, the themes are still very relevant. What struck me was the documentation of
women in India who we do not really hear or read about working on the grassroots, in labor unions, in
political spaces, et cetera. Another aspect was the conversational nature between the women online
anonymously which had liberatory potential in its own right. These women were challenging notions,
learning and unlearning and also speaking out. If the narrator had a shoved a camera in their face with a
mic to ask them their views on gender, and women’s rights like she did throughout to so many women,
maybe these chatting ladies online would not have spoken the things they did. There was a great use of
irony specially when during one of these chats a woman talks about pleasure and masturbation, and
somehow her font is not legible.

The documentary has an important messaging, that feminism is not just about academicians or even
activists speaking the terminology which we are comfortable to hear, when you hold normal
conversations with ordinary women, what they feel also has to be taken into account, even if it does not
reach that level of perfectionism. Also, the addition of men in the documentary was equally important,
because it is true that we have reached on a dangerous terrain where incorporating women into the
mainstream has become separately talking of women by women as if its not a part of the main process.
The shooting of the film was brilliant, I like such loosely put together documentaries (very
intentionally), because they seem more authentic. I felt some things were left incomplete for the viewer
to decipher time and time again, but sometimes that felt too much. Also, the advertisements in
between were a cherry on top. Overall, I feel such documentation is integral to the movement, specially
one that keeps questioning and makes you feel part of something bigger.