district in the 1960s. we don't really get characters written like this for women very often where they are like sort of front foot, owning the screen. there is power, there's strength, there's vulnerability, there's romance, there's drama. there is a lot ofjuice, just for the one character. at the start of the film, gangubai is betrayed by her lover and pushed into prostitution, but she rises up within that world, eventually becoming an activist fighting for the rights of prostitutes and calling for prostitution to be legalised.