One of the many ills of poverty is that it denies men and women of their aspirations and their basic right to be heard and to be acknowledged. Lakshmi and Me is a film on the unacknowledged divide between haves and have-nots, between a young domestic worker and her employer - something that all Indians would have experienced on this side of it or the other. A review by Kalpana Sharma (author of Rediscovering Dharavi, a book on my reading list):
...important aspect of domestic work that the film brings out is the crisis that befalls these women when they fall ill. Most of them continue to work until it is virtually impossible for them to do so. By then, their sickness has advanced to a point where they need urgent care. Yet the reason they don't take even a day off to deal with health problems is because they fear that someone else will take their place. The reason they don't demand a higher wage, or some additional amount for medical contingencies, is the same. Ask for more money, and you are guaranteed to lose your job. And there are plenty of others waiting to take your place.
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