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“If you ever come near my family again, I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”

We’ve all heard the phrase “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” We pull it out when we see a woman reacting to the hurtful choices of a romantic partner, standing up for herself after rejection, or really expressing any kind of powerful emotions at all. It’s a bon mot so pervasive that it makes you wonder if there are any men in hell. Maybe it’s all just hysterical women pulling hair and trying to steal each other’s boyfriends. Regardless of this reductive phrase and dehumanizing stereotype, few films in the history of cinema explore the concept of the scorned woman like Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction. This cautionary tale about infidelity and revenge pits two women against each other for the love of one man with a surprising female killer emerging from the wreckage.

Bhumi Pednekar is one of the most sought-after actors in Bollywood today because of her incredible acting skills and a penchant to deliver towering performances on screen that become a huge talking point. She has, through her choice of roles, picked to play heroines who do not shy away from proclaiming that they are equal to a man! Even in ‘Govinda Naam Mera’, which releases tomorrow, she plays a confident woman who is living life on her own terms.

“I have always believed that cinema can be a powerful tool to showcase strong, independent, and fiercely progressive women on screen. My journey in cinema is a living example of this because I have consciously chosen films that present the woman of today, a woman who other women can connect with and relate to,” says Bhumi.

She adds, “Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Badhaai Do, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Lust Stories, Sonchiriya,...

Going over this limited list, it is apparent that as much as Pakistani cinema is scoffed off as a rag tag bunch of sub-intelligent films, the aesthetic and critical liability can be turned over its head inviting informed insights

Genre films are best exemplified by Westerns, Sci Fi, Musicals, Action/Adventures and any number of such labels that are designed to lump films together that share certain similarities. Such commonalities may be tonal (Film Noir, Horror), conceptual (Sci Fi, Fantasy) or textual (Biopic, Period Drama, War) in nature.

Genres enable the viewers to form certain expectations from films that work as an identifying device. For instance, with the knowledge of watching a Film Noir, the viewer anticipates the basic set of conventions and motifs that operates as a comforting and familiar visual as well as a cerebral experience.

Having stocked up a sizeable movie watching experience in Pakistan, some of...