Indian actor Twinkle Khanna met Malala Yousafzai at Oxford University while promoting her husband Akshay Kumar’s upcoming movie ‘Pad Man’. The two ladies posed with other students and faculty members of the prestigious university while holding sanitary pads. (Above pic)
During media interactions, the Pakistani women’s activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner praised the movie theme which revolves around menstrual awareness and women hygiene. Malala said that Pad Man has an inspiring message. She said, “I’m really excited to see the film Pad Man… because the message behind the film is truly inspiring.”
Twinkle also spoke to the Oxford students in her speech. She complained that Indian school girls in villages have to sit with a rag cloth or a rolled-up sock or even wadded up newspaper between their legs. “Pads are still seen as a luxury item. It is odd that pads are taxed at 12 percent in India but brooms are tax free,” she resented.
Pad Man is Twinkle’s maiden production. It stars Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte. Pad Man will now release on February 9, 2018. Pad Man is a fictionalized account of Padmashri Arunachalam Muruganatham, the man who revolutionized the manufacture of the low cost sanitary napkin in India. Lakshmi is a newly married, humble welder from a rural village in the heart of India. Lakshmi’s incredible journey starts when he is shocked to discover that his wife uses an unhygienic cloth during her periods. Unable to afford a branded pad, he decides to make a sanitary pad himself. After several attempts, his irate wife refuses to be a part of his experiments. Lakshmi’s love and concern for his wife, his determination to make the pad, leads him into situations that cause so much shock and embarrassment that it compels his wife to leave him and his village to banish him.
Lakshmi doesn’t give up. His simplicity of thought, his resilience, his focus and his complete disregard for convention finally leads him to his destiny. A machine that can make a pad! The revolution that follows…from spreading menstrual hygiene, to empowering women, to starting mini cooperatives, to a vision of making India a 100% Pad using country, to accolades, to international glory and to a final resolution of his personal life, makes the rest of the feature “PAD MAN”. His journey to make India a 100% pad using country goes on…even today.
Pad Man aims to raise the curtain on all myths, taboos and beliefs around periods and menstrual hygiene, which have held women and girls back from empowerment for centuries. The curtain raiser gives us some of the exciting insights into what Pad Man has in store for us. It opens with an awestruck Sonam Kapoor trying to come to terms with the fact that how can a man be so obsessed with ‘chumming,’ as menstruation is commonly called. We are then taken to a festive scene in Akshay Kumar’s village where a celebration takes place in honor of a young girl getting her first period.
The video also gives us a glimpse of Akshay Kumar’s character Lakshmikanth at the United Nations who draws a comparison between pads used to protect the legs of cricketers and sanitary pads used by women, strongly making a point that there is a need for menstrual hygiene. Sharing the video on social media Akshay Kumar said, “#PadManCurtainRaiser from all the myths, taboos and beliefs. Here’s to unveiling the future with innovations together!”
Dubbed ‘Superhero hai yeh Pagla’, Pad Man is the world’s first feature film on menstrual hygiene inspired by the story of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential entrants Arunachalam Muruganantham, a rural welder from India with a unique, eccentrically mad edge who turned incredible inventor by providing women with access to high-quality and affordable sanitary pads 20 years ago.
Produced by Mrs Funnybones Movies, SPE FIlms India, Kriarj Entertainment, Cape of Good Films and Hope Productions, Pad Man is written and directed by ad-man turned film-man R Balki (Paa). It is billed as the most progressive family entertainer yet, starring international megastar Akshay Kumar (Toilet: Ek Prem Katha) who assumes the titular role of Arunachalam Muruganantham to once again showcase his commitment to social entertainers. He is joined by critically acclaimed actresses Sonam Kapoor (Neerja) and Radhika Apte (Kabali). One for the mad ones, the ones who are crazy enough to change the world, Pad Man is the one-of-a-kind feature film, tackling the taboo and stigmas attached to menstrual hygiene through the art of entertainment.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/seqok8s9jimby54/AACo_R5n_QfinOvN-Xcjiu8Ha?dl=0
