Being a woman is an experience so diverse in its challenges and charms, her narrative cannot stay confined to one story. Pan Nalin's refreshingly freewheeling Angry Indian Goddesses picks a whole bunch to capture her highs and lows while pointing out the discrimination she tolerates/fights on regular basis. A crisp prelude offers a glimpse into their daily battles and outbursts relating to gender bias and objectification even as they all -- Half-British Bollywood starlet Joanna (Amrit Maghera), Madhureeta, a pop singer (Anushka Manchanda), Pammi, a housewife (Pavleen Gujral), Suranjana, representing the corporate world (Sandhya Mridul) and her six-year-old daughter -- gather for the wedding of their dear friend and photographer Freida (Sarah Jane Dias) at her old family villa in Goa.

Pan Nalin gives India an unusual female buddy film that attempts to make a statement on the growing atrocities against women. His point is that misogyny runs deep in the Indian psyche. As long as the film stays with the lives of its characters, it does well. In the first half, it is breezy, its vocabulary remains conversational and is genuinely palpable. The angst-ridden toughie Sandhya Mridul, the subtle Tannishtha Chatterjee, the innocent Sarah Jane Diaz, the affirmative Anushka Manchanda, the calm Amrit Maghera put together well-etched performances.

What do women talk about when women talk? Actually, everything under the sun. Especially if they are in sunny Goa for a wedding. There's nothing 'angry', to start with, about this bunch of young women which gets together to reminisce, giggle and celebrate: the conversation flows between the old pals - fashion photographer and bride-to-be (Sarah Jane Dias), corporate slave-cum-single-mom (Sandhya Mridul), a singer going through a dry patch (Anushka Manchanda), trying-very-hard-for-a-break actress (Amrit Maghera), the unhappily married (Pavleen Gujral), and fiesty activist (Tannishtha Chatterjee).

First we meet, Freida (Sarah Jane Dias) who is a photographer dealing with the madness of fairness creams as she shoots for a brand that asks her to re-touch their dark-skinned model. Next is, Suranjana Sharma (Sandhya Mridul), a competent and demanding corporate boss who feels no shame as she strips down from her suit into a two piece as she dives into the swimming pool of her office as she deals with her high pressure job.

Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses, on one level, is a charmingly jaunty film powered by peppy performances. But under its cool, casual and cheeky chitchat on matters both saucy and solemn, it is also a trenchant study of a society festering from within. Its serious intent notwithstanding, Angry Indian Goddesses does not overly dilute its air of moderated levity, at least not until the dying moments of a free-flowing drama in which a gaggle of girls throw all the punches.

Womenfolk of the country, it is time to rejoice: India's 'first female buddy film' hits theatres this Friday. For most parts, Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses is indeed an Indian version of Sex and the City, (of course much less sex, this is India with the censor board, remember?) and surprisingly, a good one!

There are many women in Angry Indian Goddesses. They are sexy, strong, brave and uninhibited. They lech at muscular neighbours, they drink, they smoke, they wear shorts, they joke about sex, they use cuss words (which get beeped out thanks to the censors), they barge into mens' toilets, they yell at eve teasers, they break a goon's bar with a cricket bat, they get hold of guns, they fight among themselves, they spell out some secrets, they talk about their life challenges as women, they get over self denials, they sing, they dance, they laugh, they cry. They bond.