Pad Man

Pad Man (2018) is a Bollywood biographical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by R. Balki and starring Akshay Kumar in the lead role. The film draws on the true story of Tamil social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, who spent years trying to build a low-cost sanitary pad machine for rural Indian women.

Lakshmi is a small-town factory worker who discovers his wife uses dirty rags during her period because commercial pads cost too much. He sets out to fix that himself — and turns his life upside down in the process. Neighbors call him crazy. His wife leaves. The village laughs. Kumar plays the stubbornness quietly, never going for easy sentiment. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Radhika Apte round out the key roles on either side of his one-man crusade.

Time magazine later listed the real Muruganantham among its hundred most influential people in the world — a detail the film earns rather than announces. More awkward failures than victories, which is exactly what keeps it honest. Stream Pad Man (2018) online on iFILM.