Radha Mehta’s brilliant narrative short film, DOSH, follows a hard-of-hearing mother as a night with her husband’s traditional family goes amiss; while spotlighting the fight against familial denialism and damp cold alienation that many Disabled people face — while also maintaining a dark and thrilling plot.
The title, DOSH, is Hindi for “fault.” In the film, the protagonist confronts her mother-in-law about her husband’s mental health hoping for a mother’s support, but she’s quickly shut down. Things go awry when her husband retaliates by ripping the assistive hearing devices from the protagonist’s ears during a pre-wedding ritual. Overall, this an intersectional masterpiece. It weaves the culture of Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities with South-Asian taboos like disability being shameful or a punishment from God, while also leveraging the dramatic tension of a husband and wife in freefall. A pivotal scene at the end of the film depicts the deeply empathetic protagonist kneeling down in the tub with her distraught husband, the one who tossed her assistive hearing devices.
“As a hard-of-hearing South Asian mother myself, my reason to tell this story is an attempt to dismantle shame within my culture around mental health and physical disability,” says Radha. Radha is an American Film Institute MFA graduate in Directing, and 2023 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab Fellow on the Writing/Directing track. Her film DOSH has most recently been gilded with 2023 Official Selections for Oscar Award qualifying Tasveer Film Festival, Canada Screen Award qualifying International South Asian Film Festival Canada, British Independent Film Award qualifying North East International Film Festival UK, and is nominated for Best International Short at New Renaissance Film Festival London.
“I hope DOSH encourages families to openly discuss and dismantle taboos around physical and mental disability and health. Only when such challenges are discussed in a loving and nurturing manner can we be able to free ourselves from the burden of shame.” says Radha.
