Synopsis

Geeta Mahor was asleep with her three young daughters when her husband, Inderjeet, crept into their room and maliciously threw acid on them. Geeta was badly injured, three-year-old Neetu ended up severely scarred and almost completely blind, and baby Krishna tragically passed away. And the reason Inderjeet gave for the attack was because he was only getting girl children.

Fast-forward 28 years and Geeta and her daughter Neetu live their lives in the urban slums of Agra with gusto, hope and an uncompromising determination to create lasting societal change.

Set against breathtaking Agra landscapes; unpopulated parts of the Yamuna river, and above all the pace and texture of ordinary life in Agra, “Geeta” lets the characters lead us into a complex, contradictory and vulnerable story that opens up more questions than it offers answers. And the biggest and most sobering question is one we have from the very beginning: how does the continued presence of Inderjeet in Geeta and Neetu’s lives square with the independence and agency Geeta and Neetu are seeking as members of activist movement Stop Acid Attacks and in their role as founding members of the revolutionary SHEROES Hangout cafe?

While the resulting film doesn’t shy away from the horrors Geeta and Neetu have endured – Inderjeet even fronts up to the camera to tell us that he did the attack because 'men get more status if they have sons'– its focus is squarely on Geeta’s powerful love for her daughter and their shared determination to chase their dreams.