A stree rog—gynaecology  ward—in a public hospital in Bhopal is an unusual setting for a film to launch a frontal attack on Indian patriarchy, and reveal how deeply internalised is the male sense of entitlement, possessiveness and hypocrisy. But Anubhuti Kashyap, directing her debut feature, pulls it off with panache. Gangs of Wasseypur I and 2 was at the Cannes Film Festival and acclaimed worldwide. How many of us cared to know, or remember, that Anubhuti Kashyap was Associate Director on the film? It’s a good example of how easily women’s talent and work is overlooked in Bollywood and elsewhere, and how you can raise the quality of films simply by giving talented women a chance. Kashyap had earlier directed the web series Afsos (Amazon Prime), several shorts including one for Netflix’s Home Stories and Moi Marjani. Apart from Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2, she was also Assistant Director on Aamir and Dev D.

Doctor G is about medical student Dr Uday Gupta (Ayushmann Khurrana), who is keen to study orthopaedics but is stuck with a seat in gynaecology. Worse, as the only male student in a class full of women students, and ragged by female seniors, he’s keen to get a transfer, his twerpy logic being “Jo cheez mere paas hai hi nahin, uska ilaaj main kya karoonga?” Through his interactions with his girlfriend (soon ex-), his current crush Dr Fatima Siddiqui (Rakul Preet Singh), woman professor Dr Nandini Srivastav (Shefali Shah), women students and female patients, he understands his own prejudices about women, how to “lose the male touch,” learn to “listen to women,” and also realises the monstrous impact of overall patriarchy in society.