Although most people these days crave for ‘zara hatke‘ movies, the important criteria which clinches the deal is the title of the movie. Once I heard the title Laapaata Ladies, I wanted to watch it. Kiran Rao has always been the director who interested me, but I never got to watching her other movie. Interestingly, now is the time for the woman directors to shine.
So, lets see how Laapataa Ladies fares! (Laapataa loosely translates to Missing)
Released on : March 2024
Watched on : May 2024
Directed by : Kiran Rao
Starring : Mostly new faces…. except for Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan. (He also acted in Telugu movie Race Gurram)
Review:
The movie starts with Deepak Kumar (Sparsh Srivastav) and Phool Kumari (Nitanshi Goel)’s bidaai. They board a train to the grooms village in the fictional Nirmal Pradesh. Incidentally, the train is filled with other newly married couples, where all the brides are in bridal finery, wearing the customary blood red saree with ghoonghat, covering up their faces from any prying eyes.
There is also a small scene here, where the grooms compare how much dowry they have been given and how rich the bride’s family is. They also judge that something must be wrong with Deepak because he got the least out of all the grooms in the compartment!
When the train reaches the main leads’ destination, Deepak Kumar inadvertently picks up another bride, one Mrs. Pushpa Rani, w/o Pankaj. They only find out the error, on reaching the far away village! Deepak is devastated. (The drawbacks of ghoonghat is apparent. The husband can’t recognise his wife, if there are many ladies in similar dress. Even the wife can’t see the husband clearly, to confirm that she really is following her husband around!)
Meanwhile Pushpa Kumari has a cell phone; sim card included, in her possession. But why is she not reaching out to either her parents or her rich husband? Is Pushpa her real name and is she really married to Pankaj as she claims?
Deepak Kumar visits the Police Station to file a complaint about the missing Phool Kumari and the arrival of Pushpa Rani in her place. But turns out the paan chewing, money minded SI Shyam Manohar (Ravi Kishan) is cleverer than he looks. He begins to doubt Pushpa Rani, may in-fact be Jaya w/o Pradeep Singh. (Pradeep Singh has already filed a complaint that his wife Jaya is missing at another Police Station.)
On the other end of the story is our soft spoken, baby faced, innocent, uneducated young bride Phool Kumari. She doesn’t remember the name of the village her new home is in! (Though she knows her own village, she doesn’t want to reach out to her parents. She fears that, her reaching out to her parents will shame them in the society! Society may taunt them for marrying their daughter to a fraud!) Luckily for her, she makes new friends at the train station. She begins working at a tea stall and ends up earning a little money too! The tea stall owner is a kind old lady Manju Mai, who has harsh words for everyone, but is soft at heart.
As days pass by, SI is sure Pushpa Rani is Jaya and spies on her and finds her selling gold bangles and sending someone money through Money Orders. Is she a thief?
All the while, she has made herself many friends in Deepak’s house. It is apparent that Jaya a.k.a Pushpa is well educated and not a total bumpkin like Phool!
Even though Deepak wants to search around for his bride, all he has is a picture of her with him, with a ghoonghat covering her face. The incident when khan saab tells him that ghoonghat is not only covering Phool’s face but also her identity! All the while, Khan saab’s wife herself is in a burqa, which shows the sad state of women across the society. (The movie takes place in 2001)
All ends well, when Phool Kumari reaches Deepak after the missing person posters are printed. Phool Kumari’s friends at the train station celebrate upon knowing that she reached her in laws home safely. Such a heart rending moment.
But what is the story of Jaya? Why not watch the movie to find out?
I loved, loved and loved the main leads, Phool , Deepak, Jaya and the supporting role of Manju Mai and their acting. The best character, though, went to Ravi Kishan as the SI who rose to the occasion. He sets things straight between the chauvinistic egoistic dowry hungry Pradeep Singh and Jaya. I could totally guess what was going to happen, but the way Shyam Manohar handled Pradeep brought me immense satisfaction.
Laapataa ladies is an honest and beautiful movie and is worth watching for the director Kiran Rao’s ability to tell a story and for the actors who did their job perfectly. This movie is of the ‘not-to-be-missed’ kind!
Why not watch it over the weekend?
P.S:
- Of all the movies I love, Zoya Akhtar takes my top billing thanks to her Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Then comes Talvar by Meghna Gulzar tying with The Namesake by Mira Nair, followed by English Vinglish by Gauri Shinde, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer by Aparna Sen and commercial super hit Om Shanti Om by Farah Khan, lastly, Bareilly Ki Barfi by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari.
There may be better movies, I am yet to watch them. Once I do that, I may change the list. - I love the incident when Deepak meets a local politician to help find Phool. It brought some laughs.
- I also loved the subtle romance between Phool and Deepak. I am thankful that Kiran Rao selected the cast based on her story and not because they are big named stars!
- Actress Chhaya Kadam who played Manju Mai reminded me so much of aai, whom I was fortunate to meet in USA. She was sooooo relatable!
- I am on a movie spree. I have few more movies to watch and I will surely update as fast as I can.