Frames per Second: Chilli flakes and resistance

Like in the movie Mirch Masala, a status quo has been established by the women of Shaheen Bagh, which has become synonymous with countrywide protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act

When the sadistic subedar (Naseeruddin Shah) accosts Sonbai (Smita Patil), a poor woman of the unnamed village in Ketan Mehta-directed Mirch Masala (1987), and demands that she surrender to his desires, she slaps him and escapes. The subedar, a minor colonial official who is fond of caressing his impressive moustache, finds his masculinity challenged by this affront and sends his men on horses to chase down Sonbai. A hunt ensues — somewhat reminiscent of a similar scene in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles — and Sonbai somehow manages to evade the soldiers and escape into the spice-making