Soft Animal

March 2020 Thirty-six-year-old Mallika Rao is largely insulated from the struggles of the millions fighting for their existence all over India. Instead her Delhi flat and her husband threaten to imprison her as she searches for the confidence that has always eluded her. A rescue dog in her care provides more fulfilment than her husband who is consumed by work and self-obsession and she must also confront the universal challenges of having a woman's body.. Soft Animal unfolds in urgent present tense with illuminating flashbacks whip-smart dialogue and conspiratorial footnotes. Bringing the deftness of deadpan humour and the precision of meticulous social observation to the self-delusions of India's privileged urban middle class Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's latest channels an uncomfortably-and sometimes heartbreakingly-intimate experience of millennial marriage that is seldom portrayed but all too real.