Maithili Rao is an Indian freelance film critic, writer, journalist and former English lecturer based in Mumbai.
[1][2][3] She has worked for several publications, including The Hindu, Frontline, Film Comment, the Sunday Observer, Gentleman, The Independent, and Screen.
[4][5] She wrote the column "Image of Women" in the newspaper Eye's Weekly for ten years.
She is also a film critic for the Sunday Observer, The Independent, Screen, The Free Press Journal, Bombay, and Zee Premiere.
According to the Indo-Asian News Service, "The book is not only a long-pending due to this accomplished but instinctive actress but also an invaluable distillation of some of the best of Indian cinema, which could easily rise above mindless escapism to sensitively portray society and its inequities and injustices—especially towards women, whose plight Smita can so touchingly render.