Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the set of one of his films

Movies, it can be argued, like people, have a gender. They can be both male and female in turns, but are often either for the most part. Deeply aesthetic, painstakingly beautiful, from the point of view of interior décor, cinematography, costume design —chiefly expensive bridal wear (Devdas, Bajirao Mastani, etc) — maudlin in its melodrama, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films (and we must call them cinema in its rare big-screen connotation) have inevitably attracted more female admirers than male, although I'm basing this purely on anecdotal evidence, and remain quite unsure if his films might pass the all-important Bechdel Test (on gender equality).