Smahi Anand's Mission to End The 'Silent Cycle,' Screening Closing Night at the Beverly Hills Film Festival

By Arya Desai

Smahi smiles with crew on set (Photo Courtesy of Smahi Anand)

“Always when I make a film, I specifically try to write women-oriented stories with strong female protagonists. That has influenced my storytelling, and that is what made me write Silent Cycle,” says Smahi Anand, an LA-based director and writer whose latest project, Silent Cycle, is set to debut at the Beverly Hills Film Festival this Saturday. 

Anand’s film draws inspiration from her childhood growing up in Noida, India, specifically around issues of gender. But Smahi examines this broad topic through a special lens, a seemingly mundane, everyday part of the female experience: menstruation. 

However, Silent Cycle sets out to dispel this notion by shedding light on the negative attitudes and behaviors shown towards menstruation in certain parts of India. One that can have dire consequences for the women impacted by it: “Some women die, because they use the dirty cloth…[the women] are not even told about pads, or they think that it’s something modern and you should not use it,” explains Anand. 

Anand’s short film tells the story of 12-year-old Vrinda (Akshara Padwal), a young South Asian girl who is forced to confront these strict and unforgiving customs while navigating the emotions and sensitivities that accompany one’s first menstrual cycle. Along the way, she learns to speak out for her health, teaching the women in her family about the importance of sanitary pads. 

However, her task is harder than it may seem, since generational gaps complicate her ability to connect with other female family members. “The grandmother is pretty old, and she was never told about her periods. She was the first, and is somebody who's coming from really old thinking,” Anand points out, going on to add, “the mother understands that whatever her daughter is facing in the story is wrong, but she decides to keep quiet because she's in the middle position.”

A Personal Connection

Vrinda’s challenges with her family are influenced by certain experiences Anand experienced herself in regards to menstruation: “Even though I was always told about menstruation, I didn’t have open communication about it,” explains Anand.

Similar to Vrinda, when Anand confronted older female family members about it, she was dismissed: “When I got it first, when I was about to get it, I still felt like, even in my household, there was a certain sense of, like, hush-hush about it.”

Though Anand has since moved to Los Angeles, where she studied filmmaking at the New York Film Institute and continues to pursue the profession, she has translated her experience back home into the stories she chooses to focus on. That’s why when Anand decided which story to write for her thesis in the program, the answer became obvious.

In fact, Anand’s stories most often focus on lifting women and exposing complications they face. “I try to write women-oriented stories with strong female protagonists,” Anand states, “so that is what made me write Silent Cycle, because it is about menstruation and the taboos a woman has to go through in India, specifically when she gets her first period in a lower-middle-class Indian household.”

The Silent Cycle 

Smahi talking with a crew member on set (Photo Courtesy of Smahi Anand)

The heart of Anand’s film can be found in its title, which refers to the ‘silent cycle’ of mistreatment that females face because of traditional beliefs about menstruation in India. Despite half of its population experiencing a menstrual cycle, there remains a lack of discourse on the important subject, and this has its consequences.

Anand spells this out: “I feel a lot of people don't know about what happens when a woman starts menstruating in India.”

Whether that be due to religious misinterpretations, rigid societal structures, or lack of access to health education, Silent Cycle sets out to address these aspects of the complicated issue. At the same time, Anand does so respectfully, with a gentle and nuanced perspective that educates rather than attacks. 

“That is the main focus of the film, to create awareness, to show how women are treated in the Country and how [certain customs] were misinterpreted, that were done to give rest to women and not to treat them as untouchable or impure,” she asserts. 

Even on her own set, Anand noticed this lack of awareness from male crew members who were never taught about the experience of menstruation: “I could feel that they were also not aware. I remember my AD was like ‘the scene where she gets the blood spot, the blood should be on the front of the dress’ I said, ‘No, why should it?’”. 

However, through the open dialogue created on set, Anand was proud to help educate her male crew, “I felt like I was able to explain certain things with my film, and that's the purpose.

A Family Divided

Smahi directs Shaurya Sankhla (Jai) on set (Photo Courtesy of Smahi Anand

While Anand was shooting, she quickly realized her creation of the nuclear family was important for demonstrating the intergenerational differences between Vrinda and the other members. To do this, she decided to remove the patriarchal figure entirely, focusing on the women of the story. 

“Initially, in the script…I had a father, but then I was like, he's just there. He's not playing a role for her, because I wanted this film to play out between Lata and Vinda,” explains Anand. 

Instead, she chose to empower Lata in his stead: “I wanted to show, purposely, Lata as the dominant person in the family, the main figure who is the patriarch of the family. Everybody's just following what she says. So that was a deliberate choice I made.”

As a result, it is Lata who becomes Vrinda’s greatest critic, acting as the enforcer of traditional customs regarding menstruation in the village. In the end, it is also Lata whose decision to support Vrinda allows the family to heal and come together, culminating in the heartwarming apogee scene. 

This, something Anand details as a favorite moment of hers, “In the final scene of the film, where the brother and sister are lighting the apogee together, Vrinda gives it to Jai, and Lata says, ‘You should do it together.’ That is when she finally accepts them as equals.”

Just as the relationship of Vrinda and Lata transforms by the end, Silent Cycle also addresses Lata’s treatment of her daughter-in-law, Aruna (Gandhali Jain). “[Aruna] calls her mother-in-law, Maji, which is a very orthodox way of [referring to] a mother-in-law, but in the end she's calling her MA…she's trying to connect with her for the first time as well,” Anand adds. 

But before the gap is bridged between grandmother and granddaughter, several strict customs are forced onto Vrinda. One such way Anand does this is by drawing parallels between Vrinda and her brother, Jai (Shaurya Sankhla). 

From eating apart, to not being able to sleep in a bed with sheets, Lata ensures that Vrinda remains separated during the time of her menstruation. Across the room, Jai seems to be showered with compliments and affection. 

An overhead shot of Jai and Vrinda at night paints a clear picture of the discrepancy in treatment: “While the boy is sleeping in a very peaceful, comfortable way, the sister is on the floor. She's in pain. She's holding her stomach...”

Religious Misconceptions 

Growing up, Anand remembers how religion played a hand in her community’s complicated relationship with menstruation, so she made sure to emphasize this in Silent Cycle. 

“I was always questioning my mom and my grandmother,” she recalls, “I mean, it's something so natural that's happening to me. Why would God be upset?”

Anand answers this question in her film by setting the events around Navratri Puja, a festival celebrated to honor the Goddess Durga. 

Tying parallels between this Hindu festival and Vrinda’s menstruation cycle, Silent Cycle, honors the ties between religion and human nature, rather than having one work against the other. 

“Goddess Durga was known to be very strong-headed,” Anand says, “So I felt like a woman is like Goddess Durga…she goes through so much in her life, and she has the power to handle all the pain and struggles.” 

Later on, the film expands upon its connection to the religious festival, as the family burns Ravana, the villain in Hinduism, who is burned at the end of every Navratri Puja and Dussehra Festival:  “When we burn Ravana, good is winning over the evil. It's the same as the grandmother getting rid of all her old ways and she's ready to accept the newer ways of living.”

Beyond this, Anand wishes to dispel certain misconceptions about Hinduism’s attitude towards menstruation, such as women’s ability to participate in religious activities, which was intended to help women relax: “They were done so that women are well rested during these times.”

By incorporating these elements into Silent Cycle, Anand pays homage to the important cultural and spiritual practices of her characters, further demonstrating that menstruation is a natural process that should not be a source of shame or a taboo topic of discussion.

What’s Next?

Smahi celebrates with cast on set (Photo Courtesy of Smahi Anand)

As for what’s next, Anand is already signed onto more projects, including directing another film. For her, this is just the beginning of pursuing her dreams of becoming a storyteller and director. 

Anand smiles, remembering the fun moments she had in between shooting Silent Cycle, one of her biggest projects to date. Besides filming on location and with a cast of experienced actors from India, the director said working with the young actors brought a light-heartedness to the set. 

“In the scene where there is a contrast between the bed and the mat, Jai was so naughty that when I told him to sleep, he actually slept, and he was snoring,” Anand laughs. 

Regardless of how her film is received in the festival circuit, it is clear that this is the beginning of a fruitful career for Anand, whose authenticity and passion for the craft are infectious.