In this short film, feminist film director and fashion photographer Indrani Pal-Chaudhury captured a group of girls (and an elephant!) playing soccer in the streets of Jodhpur. It’s a jubilant, sweet clip and and if you think there’s an underlying feminist message, yup.
Indrani, as she’s known mononymously, worked with the girls in conjunction with the Sambhali Trust, a nonprofit foundation based in Jodhpur that focuses on empowering underprivileged women and girls, as well as Yuwa, which has the same goals but through soccer. (Indrani also has her own women-empowerment nonprofit.) The main girls in the video, Maya and Uma, were trained by a championship-winning Yuwa team, and in the process learned a new skill, which is inspiring to see in action.
This is also a promotional video for some weird corporate soccer-themed album that Pepsi is releasing (the film’s score, “Crescendo” by Jetta, is included), but yay cause they gave her the money to make it. Fun, related fact: Indrani is also responsible for photographing album covers for some of the most iconic musicians of our time, including Mary J. Blige (The Breakthrough), Mariah Carey (The Emancipation!) and Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love, because all roads lead back to Queen Bey. Happy Friday.
