"A Suitable Girl" Film Screening and Conversation with the Director

Winner of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival New Director Award, “A Suitable Girl” follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. Ritu, Dipti and Amrita represent the new India. Educated, financially stable and raised with a mix of traditional and contemporary values in the urban cities of Mumbai and New Delhi, they have access to the world in ways their mothers did not. Yet their lives take a dramatic turn when the pressure to settle down and get married hits. Career aspirations become secondary to the pursuit of a husband, and the women struggle with the prospect of leaving their homes and families to become part of another.

Documenting the arranged marriage and matchmaking process in vérité over four years, the film examines the women’s complex relationships with the marriage, family, and culture; the many nuanced ways society molds them into traditional roles; and a rarely-seen portrait of India’s urban middle class.

Join MIT-India, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Women's and Gender Studies, Global Studies and Languages, and the Open Documentary Lab for a special screening of the film followed by a conversation between director Sarita Khurana and DJ Rekha/Rekha Malhotra (CMS '19). Khurana is an award-winning filmmaker, educator, and organizer based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in Film from Columbia University and an Ed.M from Harvard. Her work focuses on South Asian subjectivities and representations.