It’s often said that cinema is a reflection of society and a filmmaker has tried to showcase a taboo subject, phantom pregnancy, being screened at the 30 Kolkata International Film Festival. The film is an attempt to mirror some of the bitter truths of society.

Cine buffs in the city queued up this morning to catch a glimpse of the film ‘No Mass No Din Ebong Antaheen’ by eminent Bengali filmmaker Soumodeep Ghosh Chowdhury. Inspired from real life scenarios of women facing phantom pregnancy, the movie, which is a work of fiction, highlights the plight of a couple longing to have a child. The unsuccessful attempts leading to the trauma of the female protagonist, underscores the social stigma that often adversely affects the mental health of several women, particularly in the rural areas.

Shot in the Cooch Behar, the movie portrays the societal pressure of giving birth to a male child on women or even as a couple, which is often associated with the pride and honour. The story revolves around the character, Shrimoyee played by actress Sreya Bhattacharyya, who suffers mental illness leading to phantom pregnancy.

According to the makers of the film, many women, especially in the rural belts and from lower strata of the society face the issue of phantom pregnancy – a medical and psychological condition in which the patient imagines being pregnant. The hallucination is so strong, according to the filmmakers, that the woman even starts to have signs of pregnancy with the belly protruding. While in the urban areas, the issues can be addressed with a simple ultrasonography, in the rural belts where social taboo dominates medical science, the women become a victim of the mental condition. “There are hardly any people aware of the medical condition called ‘phantom pregnancy’. Even among actors, only three of us had heard about it,” said the director of the film, Soumodeep Ghoh Chowdhury. “I came to know about the medical condition from my husband and daughter, who are doctors and have dealt with such patients. Considering the lack of awareness about the subject, we decided to make a film on the topic to spread awareness among people,” echoed the producer of the film Mahua Ghosh.

The film, reflecting the struggles of societal expectations, received huge appreciation from cinema enthusiasts at Rabindra Sadan today.

The 102-minutes feature film is yet to be released commercially in cinema halls.