HerStory Recommends: Powerful women, lost histories, and a city alive with art

This week, we bring to you ‘Madam Sir’ Vartika Chaturvedi’s latest case from Delhi Crime Season 3, an interesting book on the history of women in Kerala theatre, and what you can experience at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

Fast-paced, gripping new season of crime

It's been a couple of weeks since Delhi Crime Season 3 dropped on Netflix. If you haven’t watched it already, it’s a weekend binge that’s going to be worth it. ‘Madam Sir’ Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) returns to take on the murky and unforgiving world of human trafficking this season. She locks horns with a ruthless badi didi Meena (Hema Qureshi) who sits at the centre of a sprawling exploitation network.

Shah’s performance is restrained but forceful in most parts, as she brilliantly captures the grit, exhaustion and unwavering resolve of a woman cop who must confront the patriarchy, predatory power, and deep-rooted criminal networks head on. 

The storyline of ACP Neeti Singh (Rasika Dugal), as she wavers between a failed marriage and professional duties as a cop, is brought out with exceptional restraint and depth. 

If you have been a fan of Delhi Crime’s earlier seasons, this season too stands out for its emotional clarity, brilliant acting, and sharp, immersive writing.

(Delhi Crime Season 3 now streaming on Netflix)

Recognising women in Kerala theatre

For the Love of Art-The Lost History of Women in Kerala Theatre, a book translated by Jayasree Kalathil, brings in English, for the first time, Sajitha Madathil’s landmark feminist history of Kerala theatre. 

Originally published as Malayala Nataka Sthree Charithram, the work was awarded the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award in 2010. It challenged the long-standing tradition of theatre histories that celebrated male authorship while sidelining the women who shaped the art form.

Madathil’s narrative gives these women their rightful place in cultural history. She traces the lives of the unnamed performers of folk traditions, women dramatists who were rarely acknowledged as authors, and the feminists who fought to build a women’s theatre movement that sparked a wider social awakening. Their stories are of brilliance and struggle—of artists who entered the field, excelled, endured immense pressures, and often vanished without recognition.

At its core, the book is a powerful account of how women actors in Kerala were persecuted, marginalised, and silenced for decades, even as many achieved national acclaim for their craft. Through their journeys, Madathil also maps the evolution of Kerala’s modern public sphere, shaped by intersecting forces of gender, caste, class, and community.

For the Love of Art stands as both a cultural and political history and, more importantly, a record of the women whose contributions transformed Kerala theatre and have long deserved a central place in its story.

(For the Love of Art, published by Penguin Random House India.)

Art and cross-cultural dialogue

For lovers of art, all roads lead to Kochi and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale that is back after a year-long delay. 

The artist-led exhibition is set against the picturesque backdrop of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, where winding bylanes carry echoes of Portuguese, Dutch, and British rule layered over centuries. Since its inception in 2012, this artist-initiated, artist-led exhibition has reshaped India’s cultural landscape, opening up a vibrant space for experimentation, cross-cultural dialogue, and public engagement with contemporary art. 

This 2025-26 edition titled For the Time Being is curated by artist Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces. It features 66 artist projects across 22 venues and over 110 days of art, discovery, and dialogue. Participating artists include Marina Abramović, Tino Sehgal, Nari Ward, and Adrian Villar Rojas in dialogue with revered senior Indian artists, including Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Gieve Patel, and Jyoti Bhatt.

(The Kochi-Muziris Biennale - December 12, 2025 to March 31, 2026, Kochi.)