Before I saw this documentary we're talking about today, I hadn't thought about my boobs for a long time. I have neither been dating nor sending nudes to my situationships online. And it has been such a relief. For years they were the bane of my existence; one that sadly cared a lot about what guys liked. Sometimes I felt like they didn't even belong to me considering how often my romantic partners spoke about them. But these days they are just a part of my body that I seem to have no problem with. Decentering men from your life will do that to you.
The gaze with which men look at boobs compared to women are worlds apart. Subarna Dash's short, 'This is TMI', turns the ordeal of having them into an intimate and hilarious conversation among friends. It’s an animated documentary where a group of women sit around, drink in hand, and spill the tea on their boobs — size, shape, family taboos, bras vs. no bras, and the absolute absurdity of how much space breasts take up in society’s collective consciousness. But beneath the jokes and laughter, This is TMI dives headfirst into the deeper themes: body image, femininity, autonomy, sexuality, desirability, and the patriarchy’s never-ending obsession with controlling women’s bodies.
Subarna’s journey with this short started from her female friendships. Growing up surrounded by women, from her family to an all-girls’ school, she was always fascinated by the way women talk to each other in spaces free from judgment. Film school only deepened that connection, as she found a tight-knit group of friends who created a shame-free zone where no topic was off-limits. The documentary, at its core, is a love letter to that kind of intimacy; the magic of women finding solidarity in shared experiences.
"I chose boobs as the topic of discussion because I have spent hours listening to my friends scrutinising and hating on their boobs and they always did it in the funniest way possible, which I guess is evident in the film. And yes, humour was an important aspect in the film because I have almost always been surrounded by women who are hilarious and amusing but growing up I heard “oh you’re funny for a girl” way too many times."Subarna Dash
The undeniable brilliance of the film lies in its mixed-media storytelling. Subarna fuses animated illustrations, claymation, and photography to create a vibrant, dynamic visual language. A kaleidoscope of textures and mediums bring to life the messy, contradictory, and often ridiculous reality of having breasts. The animated format allows the film to tackle heavy topics like objectification and media-fueled insecurities without the weight of gloom. Instead, it offers a safe, open space where these women’s voices, experiences, and laughter take center stage. The collage-like also mirrors the way conversations naturally weave in and out of serious and silly; the personal and the political.
The process itself was as organic as the conversation it captures. Subarna gathered six women, placed a recorder in the middle, and let them talk. What followed was four hours of unfiltered, hilarious, and deeply personal discussions, all boiled down to a crisp six-minute film. The animation was built around the narration, bringing the chaos and humour of the conversation to life. For Subarna, experimenting with mixed media was a revelation, one she enjoyed so much that she now wants to make all her films in this style.
Subarna has always been obsessed with sketching — something that’s been a constant since childhood and eventually led her to pursue animation filmmaking. A graduate of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute in Kolkata, she has a knack for visualizing personal narratives like in her previous work The Girl Who Lived in the Loo & Mother, that traveled to festivals like Berlinale, TIFF, SXSW, and Annecy. She created this is TMI with her friend Vidushi Gupta who is currently studying visual development at a design school in Texas.
The documentary only depicts the hold boobs have on the world. From the way the media dictates “ideal” boob shapes (newsflash: there isn’t one) to how society shames women for showing “too much” or “too little,” the policing is relentless. The film captures how this conditioning starts early — mothers telling daughters to “cover up,” the discomfort of growing breasts before the rest of your classmates, the confusing intersection of wanting to be desirable but not objectified. It’s a constant battle between ownership and performance.
Yet, despite its deep subtext, This is TMI never loses its lighthearted spirit. The conversations flow with the ease of a late-night gossip session—there’s something deeply cathartic about watching a group of women casually dissect a topic that has dictated so much of their lives. They may be symbols of power, shame, sexuality, and everything in between, but at the end of the day, they're also just lumps of fat.
Follow Subarna here and watch the documentary at the top of the page.
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