Laapataa Ladies Review - Lost Brides Find Organic Humour and Feminism

Laapataa Ladies Review: Aamir Khan Productions has one of the finest filmographies in the modern era for any production house in Bollywood. The kind of content this production house has delivered over the years is really commendable. Taking forward its legacy, AKP brings another good film in the form of Laapataa Ladies, without any star image, status, or baggage, providing a chance for new talents. Kiran Rao returns to the director's chair to show today's filmmakers how to make an organic feminist drama. We know what kind of trash others tried to sell in the name of feminism, right? Thank God, Kiran Rao is made different, built different and thinks different. Laapataa Ladies is a sweet film, but it's sour too. It has several poignant moments that hit differently, as they come with a slick of ground-level humour. No forced attributes, no skin show, no abuses—and yet Kiran Rao makes a worth-watching feminist drama. This is enough to ensure the retirement of many who haven't understood feminism but always cry about it with obscene humour and absurd skin shows in their movies. It took two us LOST brides to FIND a new formula for a low-budget entertainer with strong content.Deepak (Sparsh Srivastav) and Phool (Nitanshi Goel) are in love and married. While returning home, Deepak mistakenly takes another bride to his house due to the same and unrecognisable red attire and veil. This new bride introduces herself as Pushpa (Pratibha Ranta) and becomes a guest at Deepak's house for a while. Meanwhile, Deepak's actual wife, Phool, finds herself lost hundreds of kilometres away from Deepak's village and can't even remember the name of the village. She gets a shelter nearby at a food shop owned by a single but independent woman. The local police are suspicious about Pushpa since they received a report of a runaway bride with expensive jewellery and money. The inspector (Ravi Kishan) starts following Pushpa and learns that she is lying about her identity, family, and real story. Unable to find Phool, Deepak is losing his patience, while Phool is learning new ways of living and earning at a food shop. Will they ever come together?Laapataa Ladies is a smartly written script, considering the way things are placed. The bride with brains and education is left in a family of illiterate people, and the bride with traditional burdens goes to the house of an independent woman. The film makes poignant speeches about old traditions of brides, such as not taking husband's names, not getting an education, not making careers, and covering the face with a veil. That veil is what causes all this fiasco, and it's a metaphorical take on the issue without any troublesome or complicated commentary. My favourite scene will be this: A man shows a picture from his wedding, with the bride's face covered with a veil. Man 2 says, Isme toh chehra chupa diye. Chehra churana matlab identity chupana. The next moment, his wife comes out of the house, her face covered with a hijab. Boom! I clapped. There is more like this that shouldn't be spoiled, so I leave you with LL and its first-time experience. What's more? There is some so-so drama that looks outdated, but nothing terrible. Since the film is set in 2001, the writing couldn't explore modern issues, and that limited the film's potential to the backdated social messages.There are some new faces, but if new talents are like this, then we don't need experienced actors anymore. All fresh faces have lived their character, and since I have met them and seen them in real life, I can assure you of the kind of transformation they have gone through. Sparsh Shrivastava is that college playboy material, but you see him playing such a niche role. Nitanshi has such fair skin that she can fit into playing Julie Andrew's granddaughter if they announce another remake of Mary Poppins. But no, she decided to play a simple village girl instead and got into the skin of the character like a mature actor. Pratibha Ranta is what you call a dashing girl with a sense of understanding, and she has also done well. Ravi Kishan is hilarious at times, but watch out for that last scene when you'll feel like clapping for him. A talent like Chhaya Kadam comes once in a decade, and I thank AKP for choosing that talent to play such a meaty role that nobody else could have played but her. The supporting cast has also been great here.Laapataa Ladies lacks hit numbers, but that's not an issue here. A film like this never needed a hit number to destroy its essence, but somehow those romantic numbers slow the pace down. The background score does not impress either. The cinematography and editing are fine, with a few hiccups here and there. Kiran Rao's vision to look at a two-decade-old story was modern enough, but the justification wasn't modern enough. Laapataa Ladies may please a certain section of the audience, but it definitely lacks contemporary features that would appeal to today's generation. We have been through all those feminist dramas by legends like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and Shyam Benegal, which were ahead of their time and challenged many current problems facing women. Rao's flick lags behind in that sense. Imagine this film in 2004 (two decades ago), and the impact would have been unforgettable. It's just that we have come all the way through so many films from regional and foreign industries that some rooted stories are meant to look "just good enough" instead of "too good." Laapataa Ladies proves that sentence just right. Nevertheless, it is much better than other garbage items thrown on the screen with the screams of "modern feminist drama."