IMPURE: A Private Life, a PublicVerdict
By Vaibhav Kumar Modi
Founder, Dark Vibe Society
Her wedding is cancelled. Her sex life becomes everybody’s business.
In IMPURE, Sandhya’s prospective in-laws discover she is not a virgin and call off the marriage. Her cousin posts about it online. Soon, strangers have opinions about a woman they have never met.
With a story by Varahi Mallipamula and direction by Nishanthi Evani, this English–Telugu comedy-drama brings family expectations and social media into uncomfortable company. Sandhya, played by Yashna Muthuluri, has to deal with the consequences. Everyone else gets to comment.
Progressive, until someone disapproves
Behind the film is Varahi Mallipamula—writer, actor, producer, creative director and comedian—who plays Sandhya’s American cousin, Veera.
In conversation with Dark Vibe Society, Varahi traced the inspiration to an incident in India. People she considered progressive still judged who she spoke to and how she carried herself. The familiar question—what will people say?—had followed her into supposedly open-minded company.
For IMPURE, she made the stakes much larger. Sandhya becomes a viral meme, and other people’s judgement threatens to define her life.
Veera helps set that in motion. Her post exposes Sandhya’s situation to a wider audience, complicating the idea that speaking up is always helpful. The person making a public point and the person living with its consequences may want very different things.
Varahi’s mother, Sridevi Mallipamula, raised her and her sister after their father died when Varahi was four. That example shaped her confidence in what she could do. Today, mother and daughter produce IMPURE together.
Born in India and raised in the United States from the age of twelve, Varahi wanted Telugu to be part of the film because of what the language means to her, culturally and personally. She also told us she wanted IMPURE to reach audiences across India, beyond Telugu-speaking viewers. The film’s cultural roots are specific; the judgement its characters face is something she hopes audiences around the world will recognise too.
Respectability has its ridiculous moments
The comedy was something we enjoyed. The US-returned character introducing himself as “Balls” is one of the moments that stayed with us. There is a welcome absurdity to that introduction in a film where people are so concerned with appearances.
Varahi wanted humour to make difficult subjects approachable, giving audiences room to draw their own conclusions.
The story also follows Pranav, played by Sai Krishna, an aspiring actor facing expectations around his career. Through him, she wanted men to recognise the pressure to prove their worth through money and conventional success.
Sandhya’s relationships attract judgement; Pranav’s ambitions do too. Both face other people’s ideas about what an acceptable life should look like.
Inside Veera’s marriage
Sandhya’s private life is being judged in public. Veera’s own marriage brings another difficult relationship into the story: her husband is gay.
What stood out to us was that he wasn’t made the butt of the joke. We enjoyed IMPURE’s comedy, but the laughter didn’t depend on mocking his sexuality—a welcome change from the familiar film trope of using queer characters as comic props.
When we discussed this with Varahi, she said the team had taken particular care with the lavender-marriage storyline. They wanted to be honest about the situation without villainising the gay character. She also spoke about growing up with many queer friends.
That care matters. Veera’s hurt has a place in the story without her husband being mocked for who he is.
IMPURE at Rainbow Nights
The IMPURE crew also joined us at Rainbow Nights and gave away tickets to the film to members of the queer community.
Rainbow Nights is our baby. Music and performance bring people through the door, but the people make the night. Having the crew there connected the film with a community that could bring its own experiences and opinions to the screening.
IMPURE received the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2026 Indiewood Film Festival, as listed on the festival’s official awards page.
If awkward family dynamics, flawed characters and the pressure to be respectable interest you, look for a screening in your city.
Take someone whose opinion you’re curious about. We’d like to hear what you both make of it.
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