Frames of Reference

“Laapataa Ladies” – Not the Usual Bollywood “Long Lost Brothers” Story

Kiron Rao’s second directorial venture was an order of magnitude improvement over Dhobi Ghat, her directorial debut in 2011. It was understated, engaging, and a pleasant and much needed detour from the gore and violence of the new millennium. A low budget film with an almost all-new start cast, it could very easily have been forgotten amongst the more than 120 movies released in 2024.

It is hard to imagine that the three leading stars had so little acting experience before this movie. They had some experience on the small screen. Sparsh Shrivastava was the young protagonist in Balika Badhu, while Nitanshi Goel was a child artist in a few TV shows and a model. Pratibha was the lead in Qurbaan Hua, but all in all, they were practically unknown before this movie. In fact, the most well known names in the star cast were Ravi Kishen who played the inspector’s role, and Chhaya Kadam who played the role of the tea stall owner.

What the movie had going for it was a narrative that was understated without the prescriptive overtones of virtue signaling. It had empathy without melodramatic situational manipulation. In terms of the plot and the storyline, it is relatively linear and conventional in terms of the events of that transpire in the lives of the characters without too much meandering or diversions, unlike Dhobi Ghat.

The plot itself feels like a mosaic of themes, each of which potentially requiring a complete movie to do justice. There is the theme of women’s empowerment with Jaya/Pushpa’s aspirations to pursue her education having to be sacrificed so that her other sisters can get married after her. Then you have Deepak’s family as the archetype of the struggling farmers in rural India who are nevertheless generous to a fault. There is the stereotypical greed and sense of entitlement of Pradeep’s family who are more concerned about the lost jewelry than the fact that their daughter-in-law went missing. Each of these themes is reminiscent of a formula beaten to death in the melodramas of the sixties and seventies.

But the redeeming feature of the movie is the sensitive and heartwarming way in which Phool Kumari’s burgeoning self-awareness and growth under the tutelage of Manju Mai is portrayed. One can see the evolution of that growth in her vehement response to Manju saying “hum gudbak nahin hai!” (I am not stupid!), to her volunteering to help in the tea stall by making some dishes, to her realization that earning one’s living changes their self-esteem, and finally her confident assertion while boarding the train that she can find her way and doesnt need Chotu’s help.

The music by Ram Sampath was very good, with the song “Sajni Re” by Arijit Singh standing out. The performances of relatively new artists was a pleasant surprise. Cinematography was also quite good, with attention to detail on the typical rural landscapes of Central India. Props to the director for not dwelling on poverty porn!

There are so many reasons to like this movie, especially at a time when truly wholesome cinematic entertainment is so rare. I only wish the conflicts weren’t resolved quite so smoothly just for the sake of making it a “feel-good” film. Overall, I thought it was a decent watch, though I’m not sure it entirely deserved an Oscar nomination. Still, it’s definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet!