Twinkle Khanna Produces Short Film “First Period: An MHM Story”

Twinkle Khanna is known for her witty retorts, her humorous takes on regular life incidents and her nature of unabashedly taking stand for political and social causes that she believes in, something that is quite unusual and unexpected from celebrities. Now, she is not all words and no action. Twinkle is passionate about addressing important issues that are often swept under the rug in the name of “Indian Culture”, in the process dragging our whole society centuries behind.

One of her passionate attempts at opening up conversations about taboo subjects was her last project, Padman, where she participated as a producer while her husband Akshay Kumar played the role of the protagonist. They tackled the hush-hush topic of menstruation and promoted menstrual hygiene. And now the author and columnist is back with another project that deals with the same issue, i.e. menstruation. But this time, the portrayal has a complete twist to it.

On this World Menstrual Hygiene day, Twinkle Khanna unveiled the short film “First Period” on her social media. The short film, written and directed by Mozez Singh, has been produced by Khanna. Twinkle tweeted out the link to the film with the caption “what would the world be like if men and boys had periods? Watch this film by @MozezSingh that highlights unequal power relations and challenges all norms.”

The film takes on a very interesting narrative method where it shifts the perspective and shows the first day of menstruation from a boy’s point of view, in a dystopia where women do not exist and the tables have turned. The movie portrays the first experience of menstruation of a school boy named Ayush and then traces the reactions of the people around him, including his family, friends and teachers. In the world of Ayush, periods are celebrated as an empowering phenomenon.

On the flip side, the film also reminds us of the despairing reality of periods in this world, where women themselves are brain washed into considering menstruation as something dirty or contaminating, girls use ash, hay and wood shavings as sanitary pad alternatives and a lot of girls have to even drop out of school due to their periods.

The short film delivers a very strong impact in questioning the ways that things are today in women’s world regarding menstruation. It does a brilliant job in promoting normalcy of the issue. As Twinkle herself said in a second tweet, “in order to have a clear perspective, sometimes you have to examine things from all angles including turning them upside down.” The movie does exactly that, and in a way that lingers in the viewer’s mind and will hopefully make a lot of people want to think about the issue differently!

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