‘Ladies First’ On Netflix: A Fearless Female Archer Strives For Olympic Gold And Gender Equality In India

On March 8, media, television, and public figures honored women of the past, present and future during the annual International Women’s Day. The New York Times announced a project that will publish obituaries of “previously overlooked women” in history; Freeform censored women saying the word “sorry” on their cable broadcast; and everyone from Donald Trump to Harry Styles acknowledged the women in their lives on social media.

Ahead of the highly anticipated second season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Netflix quietly dropped a short (39 minute!) documentary titled Ladies First — a small but meaningful short film that celebrates the exact ethos of International Women’s Day. Ladies First profiles Deepika Kumari, an Indian archer who became World Number One at age 18, as she strives for a gold medal at the Olympics. Born into poverty in rural India, Kumari committed to the sport early in life, leaving her family and village behind as she enrolled in an archery academy. Ladies First focuses primarily on Kumari’s two trips to the Olympics, where she represented India on the world stage in London in 2012 and in Rio in 2016, while showing the toll that persistent media coverage can take on a person’s mental stamina.

Most documentaries focus on the tangible outcomes of these types of competitions, but Ladies First is somehow both laser-focused on Kumari’s pursuit of gold while also being about the large gaps in gender equality in India. Kumari speaks at length about how being a woman has altered the way that the public has perceived her; that the media had focused on her flaws instead of celebrating her victories. On a larger scale, Kumari discusses Indian values in general, taking note of how the sport has changed her life — that if she hadn’t found archery, she would likely have been married off against her will, a practice that still occurs in villages across India. Documentaries like this and Daughters of Destiny are doing marvelous work to showcase working class females in India who are striving for greater fortunes than what has been handed to them, despite being entrenched in a society that doesn’t always value their worth.

If I had to nitpick one detail of Ladies First, it’s the strange dubbing that is used instead of traditional subtitles. Dubbing takes away emotion and inflections in speaking, and Ladies First employs odd speakers that don’t fit the mood of the film. While I feel like I know Kumari from her actions, I feel somewhat distant from her because I’m never allowed to fully hear her voice — an unfortunate metaphor in a film that otherwise does great work in showcasing female strength. Further, the dubbing actors used don’t seem to be native speakers and areas of India or peoples’ names are routinely mispronounced, which ultimately took away from the story being told.

One of the most striking sequences comes at the close of the documentary. Kumari is slightly older than we had seen her throughout Ladies First, her hair is hanging loose down her back, and she returns to her old archery academy. The students swarm around her reciting verses and doing arthi as she arrives. They are literally worshipping her. When they sit down inside, we see something that isn’t always shown in mainstream media: female mentorship. Kumari takes time to advise the next group of female Indian archers on questioning authority, asking for help, and using the Internet as a resource. Fearless women like Kumari are leading the way in driving important conversations and they’re bringing an entire generation along with them.

Frustrations in inequality are being felt more than ever in the United States, but these conversations are also happening (and have been for years) across the globe — many in developing nations. Approximately halfway through the documentary, Kumari’s fuse is lit and she delivers a sermon: “People often throw around the term ‘ladies first.’ So when girls want to advance in life…why not say ‘ladies first’ when it really counts?…I believe [men] are afraid of us — that if we are given freedom, we will surpass them. That we’ll go so far ahead of them, that they won’t be able to see us at all.”

Happy International Women’s Day, Deepika. I’m fired up.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer living in New York City. Her work has appeared on The TV Addict, Brown Girl Magazine, Breadcrumbs Mag and Syndicated Magazine. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

Watch Ladies First on Netflix