Interrogating ‘Family as Lynchpin of Inequalities’ in the Film Mrs . (2025): Exploring the Missing Link of Caste–Class–Gender Intersectionality

Abstract

This article is a response to many newspaper articles, comments of viewers on social media platforms, feminists and the social scientists on the recent Bollywood film Mrs. (2025). These critiques of the film amplify the feminist voices that question the routinized and familial contexts that subtly produce women as subjects of everydayness within the patriarchal arrangement, as depicted in the film. While these reviews have succeeded in exploring various economic, sexual and health-related dimensions concerning women within the conjugal family settings, they, however, fail to capture how a woman’s caste, class and religious identities also shape her everyday realities. In this article, we explore the missing dimension of caste–class–gender nexus. The article offers an ‘intersectionality’ lens to look at this film differently, raising some pertinent questions for those who engage with cinema and caste. This article offers a fresh insight into family as a lynchpin of social inequalities. We also leave the questions for readers to reflect on the role of school in reproducing/challenging patriarchy/creating a gender just society.