Why three women’s responses to Hema Committee report call for a feminist introspection

“I have not heard knocks on my door. I don’t know of safety issues in the Malayalam film industry,” said actor Jomol in response to the findings of the Hema Committee report on the working conditions of women in Malayalam cinema. Jomol, who began her career as a child artist, had won a national award in 1997 for her performance in the Malayalam film Ennu Swantham Janakikutty. In it, she played a rebellious young girl at odds with her conservative family, a stark contrast to her demure response to the incidence of workplace sexual harassment raised by her female colleagues.