June (2019), Girls Will Be Girls (2024), and Bad Girl (2025) might look like three simple coming-of-age dramas, but they reveal something much deeper. They hold up a mirror to the quiet, complicated struggles that so many girls in India face every single day.
June captures girlhood in a distinctly Malayali setting, the emotional tightrope between family expectations, first love, and self-worth. Girls Will Be Girls dives into the mother–daughter dynamic, showing how a woman’s own unresolved past shapes the freedoms she offers her child. Bad Girl strips away the “modern family” façade, exposing how control often disguises itself as protection.
What makes these films stand out is their honesty. No commercial gimmicks. No sugar-coating. Just raw, lived reality. Their directors choose truth over theatrics, and that choice hits harder than any blockbuster dialogue.
A closer look at these stories reveals the many barriers women face, barriers shaped not overnight but through age-old restrictions imposed by a male-dominated society. Psychology calls this learned helplessness, a concept by Martin E. P. Seligman, which explains how repeated negative experiences can make individuals feel powerless to change their situation, even when change becomes possible.
Many women in our society have fallen into this pattern, yet countless others have worked hard to break free and reshape their lives. Ironically, these women are often labelled “bad girls”. What’s more revealing is that this criticism doesn’t come only from men; it frequently comes from women who have been conditioned by the same patriarchal norms. Generations of indoctrination make it hard for them to accept someone challenging the barriers they themselves have silently endured.
You’ve probably seen this firsthand – the daughter questioned for staying out late while her brother moves freely, the girl judged for ambition while her male peers are celebrated for “confidence”. These tiny everyday moments are the real threads of patriarchy.
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Interestingly, none of these films demonise men or portray them as villains. Yes, men historically created many restrictive norms, but in today’s educated society, it is often the internalised comfort and silence among women themselves that allow these norms to persist. That’s what makes these films so powerful: they show that true freedom begins with confronting one’s own conditioning. Sometimes, the biggest barrier to liberation is the self.
In the present generation, many family dynamics are slowly changing, with many parents becoming more understanding and emotionally aware, giving their daughters the freedom to make their own choices. Yet, countless families, educated and modern on the surface, still cling to outdated customs. Bad Girl depicts such a family. These families need guidance on what healthy parenting truly means.
This contrast, between changing households and those still trapped in old norms, is especially visible in Kerala, where progressive education often clashes with deeply rooted cultural expectations. A family may promote academic freedom, but panic when their daughter asks for personal freedom.
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The unfortunate reality is that struggles like these, whether faced by women or men, rarely find space in mainstream cinema. Take Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan (2010). How many men who criticise female-centric films have even watched a sensitive coming-of-age story about a boy? Very few, because most remain focused on defending their favourite stars and films. This lack of awareness reflects a deeper flaw in our education system.
As a result, we see people on social media engaging in endless arguments without grasping the gender disparities that truly exist. This is why films like these are so important; they offer a reality check. They remind us that society is far more complex than the curated narratives we consume online.
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And perhaps that’s the point. These films don’t just entertain; they unteach. They chip away at the lies we absorbed growing up, the rules we accepted without question, and the roles we assumed were fixed.
In the end, June, Girls Will Be Girls, and Bad Girl matter because they don’t give us heroes or villains. They give us the truth. And sometimes, truth is the first step toward unlearning everything we thought was normal.
