Laapataa Ladies Movie Review: Lol

Laapataa LadiesUA Comedy dramaDir Kiran RaoCast Sparsh Shrivastava Pratibha Ranta Nitanshi GoelRating 35Literally on the face of it the premise of this picture is so preposterous you might be tempted to dismiss it within a few minutes into the movieWhich is that a bridersquos eyes are covered in a ghunghat veil Therefore she can barely look straight her head down shrouded in cloth setting a limit to her field of vision also metaphoricallyThere are two such brides returning from their weddings with their respective grooms on a train The first husband heads off with the wrong wife into the right station Only to realise this matrimonial error once hersquos already reached home Thatrsquos not allFrom thereon the wrong bride so wholly comfortably settles into the wrong husbandrsquos joint familymdashchilling chitchatting over daysmdashyoursquod think nobodyrsquos quite bothered by this strangest domestic intrusion As if thatrsquos the way it was meant to beIs this some sorta pulpy pic on wifeswapping Oh hell no Loopholes apart letrsquos first place Laapataa Ladies in terms of genre thenIrsquod go with a feminist comedy if therersquos such a thing and why should there not be Or more likely a rural romcom in the garb of a kinda thriller if you may Or even a romance down to the stationairport finale Itrsquos this genre mashupbender that makes this movie all the more intriguingAnd no it really doesnrsquot matter if the plot per se makes logical sensemdashthey fill up enough holes along the way for a reasonably realistic ride Which starts with the Great Indian Railway phenomenon called ldquoadjustingrdquo on seats packing in double the number of people that can fit into a single berth in a compartmentHence the confusion once the bums have shiftedinterchanged while the groom returns from the loo What happens to the bride he left behindShe takes off on another journey albeit in a railway station The most beautiful lesson she learns is on the importance of being alonemdashonce you master that none of the world can bother youBoth the missing ladies are perfect adults They should technically know their addresses and move onout right away Why donrsquot they Well thatrsquos the film you must watch rather than simply reading about it noItrsquos based on a story by film editor Biplab Goswami If Irsquom informed correctly he turned it into a book first which later got developed into a screenplay withSneha Desai Divyanidhi SharmaItrsquos set and evidently shot in a village in central India ie Madhya Pradeshmdashnamed the fictitious lsquoNirmal Pradeshrsquo that I guess translates to a lsquosoft statersquoWhich would be an accurate description of this film itself full of a naturally gentle energy in service of light sliceoflife comedymdashbringing to light the good in almost all of its characters as they move about their day in a rural hamlet with its own calming rhythms and beats despite all the confusion that surrounds themIn another world this setting would have set off a dark arthouse drama more literally on rights and oppressionsmdashlikewise with a corrupt daroga Ravi Kishan kicking ass here and his dreaded deputiesBut that era stopped existing perhaps once even Shyam Benegal made the wonderful Welcome to Sajjanpur 2008 Laapataa Ladies is perhaps even more entertainingly subversive without making an obvious show of itThe lead guy Sparsh Shrivastava is just such an amiable bloke you wanna warmly hug As is his missing bride Nitanshi Goel The wrong bride Pratibha Ranta hersquos brought home could be a shady lady wersquore not sureBetween these newbie leadsmdashand a carefully assembled ensemble cast mixing together so effortlessly that you feel they so belongmdashemerges a believable world novel enough to draw you in by the minuteThink of it as the Amazon series Panchayat and how instantly fresh and original that felt for its location foremost I was so happy to spot actor Durgesh Kumar darogarsquos deputy in this moviemdashthe guy Bhushan from Panchayat who delivers the famous line ldquoDekh raha hai BinodrdquoHow many Indians live in villages Almost twothird about 66 per cent How many mainstream Hindi films are set in Indian villages Barely any And thatrsquos because cinema has always been an urban medium There have never been permanent theatres in villagesThatrsquos also why a detailed PSA public service announcement in this movie on stickytrap as the alternative to pesticides in farming may be lost on its essentially city viewers Unless the filmmakers host a special screening for the people of lsquoSuraj Mukhirsquo who will probably fish out a cellphone for their entertainment insteadLaapataa Ladies is rightly set in 2001mdashthe plot in the subsequent world of social media and smartphones would further fall flat at the first instanceItrsquos directed by Kiran Rao who made a dream debut with Dhobi Ghat 2010 In an absolute contrast that was an ode to the swarming metropolis of Mumbai This is her second feature Surely in the leadup to this release she mustrsquove been asked where shersquod gone lapataa herselfWell among the films she produced with Aamir Khan Productions around the same time as her directorial debut was Anusha Rizvirsquos Peepli Live 2010mdashagain a rare rural pic that struck at the heart of news media and povertyeconomics with striking humourLaapataa Ladies similarly hits fine notes on the position of women in societymdashany societymdashbut does so with such immense empathy subtlety and most importantly comedy that tends towards LOL laugh out loud on multiple occasionsmdashso elegant looking like a wow

Laapataa Ladies Movie Review: Lol

Laapataa Ladies
U/A: Comedy, drama
Dir: Kiran Rao
Cast: Sparsh Shrivastava, Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel
Rating: 3/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / Laapataa Ladies Movie Review: Lol

Laapataa Ladies Movie Review: Lol

Laapataa LadiesU/A: Comedy, dramaDir: Kiran RaoCast: Sparsh Shrivastava, Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi GoelRating: 3/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Laapataa Ladies
U/A: Comedy, drama
Dir: Kiran Rao
Cast: Sparsh Shrivastava, Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel
Rating: 3/5