I was drawn towards Kamathipura, curious and enthused with an academic idealism and naïveté, proceeding with an assurance to find enough contentions necessary for a graduation thesis in architecture with social justice as premise. This very assurance stemmed from my cinematic perception of the infamous neighbourhood, even before laying foot on my assumed potential ground, only to find that I was not the first or the last to arrive at its threshold, seeking.
A familiar Kamathipura featured in the 2018 Mrunal Thakur starrer, Love, Sonia, with brothels thriving on trafficking young women from rural hinterlands, tricked through promises of lucrative employment in the heart of Maximum City. A 2019 raid rescuing 141 girls held behind trap doors and steel cages, raised a poignant question—how long will art continue imitating life?
