Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

There is a lot to be said for sweet, kind men. Even at its most tedious, I felt good-natured towards Pad Man because it features such men and suggested that love is a powerful catalyst for change when it comes to gender. Akshay Kumar's Lakshmiprasad Chauhan is a genial and loving man, inspired to invent a low-cost technology to produce cheap sanitary napkins because he does not want his wife to suffer the effects of menstrual taboos. Sonam Kapoor's father has brought his daughter up with a matter-of-fact tenderness - curled her hair, learned to cook, enjoyed her company. The film unambiguously shows that a loving father can raise an unlimited girl who embodies freedom and self-confidence. Communicating that egalitarianism - yaniki relating to others as people, not as identities - helps you see both, the problem and the solution, where others are blind, is a tonal achievement of the film.