Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society is a charming film by the British-Pakistani director that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and opened in Indian theatres on Friday, following a preview at the Jio Mami Year Round Programme. 

The film taps into a rich lode of Pakistan and Pakistani diaspora films questioning the status quo in Pakistani/diaspora society since decades, including a younger generation of women clawing back the conservative crap of an older generation. Beyond the pioneering work of Sabiha Sumar (Khamosh Pani), these include Haroon’s brilliant Burka Avenger animation TV series, whose young superheroine wears a burqa: her alter ego is Jiya, a girls’ school teacher, who fights corrupt politicians like Vadero Pajero, by using Takht Kabaddi, a martial art involving throwing books and pens. There’s British-Pakistani Asim Abbasi’s Churails series on Zee5, that featured four cool women, whose female detective agency exposed philandering husbands; Indo-British Meenu Gaur’s Pakistani series Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam (Zee5); Norwegian-Pakistani Iram Haq’s What Will People Say; Sarmad Masud’s My Pure Land, British-Pakistani filmmaker Seemab Gul’s short Mulaqat/Sandstorm, produced by Abid Aziz Merchant, that was at the Venice film festival, and the work of Maheen Zia and Afia Nathaniel. Pakistani-Canadian Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s two-time Oscar-winning documentaries, Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, question the terrible price some women pay for having/rebuffing desires. Saim Sadiq’s Joyland (Cannes) is a frontal attack on patriarchy, as are Iram Parveen Bilal’s Josh and forthcoming Wakhri, and the Pakistani-Canadians Zarrar Kahn’s (director) and Anam Abbas’ (producer) In Flames, at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight. And there’s also Ms Marvel, Kamala Khan, the American Desi superheroine.