Cast: Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, Ravi Kishan, Rachna Gupta, Geeta Agrawal Sharma
Crew:
Written by Biplab Goswami, Sneha Desai, Divyanidhi Sharma
Cinematography by Vikash Nowlakha
Music by Ram Sampath
Edited by Jabeen Merchant
Produced by Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Jyoti Deshpande
Directed by Kiran Rao
Laapataa Ladies Movie Rating: 3.5/5
Kiran Rao, ex-wife of actor Aamir Khan, has directed Dhobi Ghat, earlier. She worked as an assistant director and has always dreamt of becoming a director. Now, she has directed Laapataa Ladies, a rural satirical comedy film. The trailer has given old 70’s and 80’s rural films from Hindi cinema. The movie has been able to gain good buzz prior to release. Laapataa Ladies released on 01st March 2024 and let’s discuss about the movie in detail.
Plot:
Deepak Kumar(Sparsh Shrivastava) starts his journey back to his village from his wife Phool(Nitanshi Goel)’s home with her. He has to take a long stretch from her native place to his village and change different modes of transport. The couple climb into a train and along with them, there are few more newly-married couples. Interestingly, every bride wears long veils and red saree. As per the traditions, all brides wear so long veil that it is hard to recognise one from another. Deepak meets another couple and their family, who make fun of him for not answering about dowry query. Due to heavily crowded train Deepak requests them to adjust and give his wife some space.
As the train passes some stations, Phool moves to the window and besides her sits Pushpa Rani(Pratibha Ranta). Unknowingly, in the urgency to get down, Deepak takes back Pushpa with him. She doesn’t talk to him back and never protests. After walking with him to his house, she reveals her identity. Deepak understands that he lost his wife Phool and brought the other bride with him. Phool gets down at the other couple’s home destination and hides from the groom and his family. She starts to live at the platform. Can Deepak find Phool or not? Will Pushpa tell the family about her true identity and intention behind walking back to their house or not? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
Kiran Rao had a much advertised and buzzy release for Dhobi Ghat, as Aamir Khan also acted in that film. Here, he is just a producer and the movie did not have such extensive promotional campaign too. But the material released has intrigued interest. The movie should have garnered more buzz as it deserves better audience reception. It is a very heartfelt and well-made satirical comedy that needs to be seen by audiences. The kind of satire it delivers on how women are being treated at home in villages and how are being minimalised to just taking care of home without any other ambition in life has been handled very well.
Movie brings out the heavy messaging with a soft coat of comedy. It never tries to over dramatise the situations yet it doesn’t shy away from hardcore messaging. It is all integrated into the scenes and writing. We see how characters are differentiated and yet some are shown completely bad. The kind of beliefs that our old households in rural India consider as best for women and how those beliefs can stop their growth literally and metaphorically. Phool’s character graph and more empowered Pushpa Rani’s penchant to grow even bigger gets us. We can understand why these women behave as they. While one feels too old school and other seems craving to get out of the same old school, both are lovable and respectable.
Both of them grow and we root for their growth as well. Kiran Rao found a very good script in the zone of Shayam Benegal’s Welcome to Sajjanpur. We can also say that the web-series like Panchayat also have contributed to this kind of writing. Casting is a big plus point for the film and ensemble have performed at their absolute best. The movie tries to showcase women empowerment without trying to be on the face yet being on the face. How can that be possible, by making characters ask important questions and state what they feel without trying to have any kind of sugar coating.
Also, Kiran Rao got the setting right and production design is great too. The kind of reality she creates with the new actors and gives right pacing to the movie, too. Had some aspects been worked out a little bit more like how Phool is coping up and how Deepak is before this mistake and how he is changing by channeling this longing could have helped the movie to tell the story even better. On the whole, Laapataa Ladies is a good watch and it works as an easy film to watch for its ability to entertain while stating out some of the difficulties that Indian women still have to face.
Positives:
Ensemble performances
Production Design
Pitch Perfect Casting
Engaging Screenplay
Honesty in efforts
Negatives:
Messaging seems too on face at times
Slight pacing issue in concluding 30 minutes
Few comic aspects could have been explored even better
Laapataa Ladies Movie Bottom-line: Good Watch!
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