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Returning to blogger after a long long time. Still sticking to Film reviews and here’s the latest:
#LAAPATAA LADIES:
If there’s ever been a biting satire on the status and identity of women in a contemporary and relatable patriarchal society, it is this! #KiranRao has delivered a very well crafted social satire, juxtaposing an intriguing tale of lost brides, with the issue of complete negation of women’s identity in rural India. As the tale unfolds one wonders which is the metaphor and which the reality!
Phool and Pushpa, unknown to each other and very dissimilar too, are brides and co-travellers in a passenger train along with their newly married husbands Deepak and Pradeep. They sit quietly, covered from head to toe in identical bridal attire- red sari, red veil, the works, indistinguishable and undefinable, except as brides. As the chaotic train compartment with several dulha-dulhan jodis finally slumbers, Deepak grabs his veiled wife Phool and hurriedly disembarks from the train on reaching his destination. A comedy of errors has begun! It’s only when the welcome party in the village emerges that truth dawns on them-there’s been a huge mix-up and the bride is not Phool but an unknown entity who calls herself Pushpa!
Deepak faces derision from his family and community at being such a loser. However, the film is not about Deepak but about the lost bride, Phool, who is now stranded at a non descript train station and after many an anxious moment, finds shelter and work with an older, single, independent woman called Manju Mai, (Chhaya Kadam).
As Deepak mounts his search for the missing Phool there emerges the SHO of the local police station, the paan-chewing, sleazy, slothful Shyam Manohar played by the very versatile #RaviKishen. What follows is an interesting tale of Pushpa whose motives for not lamenting at being “lost” or surreptitiously using her #Nokia phone in the middle of the night, remain shrouded in mystery and add several layers of socially relevant issues.
Have women no identity of their own? Are they really and metaphorically lost behind a veil and expected to toe the line set by their husbands, howsoever undeserving or for that matter, even deserving they may be? Must they only have two relevant addresses in life- father’s and husband’s? Must they always be viewed through a relationship prism? Is there another aspiration that they can have, even though they may appear to be too distant and difficult?
Or is the situation so irredeemable that they can neither call their husbands by their names nor eat the food of their choice? Are their desires, talents, capabilities and aspirations forever subservient to their husband’s or can women assist each other through mutual support, camaraderie and solidarity and in the process redraft their destinies? Will men continue to command a premium in the form of dowry and obedience from wives or is there another role they can play? The film has a very pronounced feminist accent but luckily, it is not in-your-face.
There are many questions and some answers. While attempting to answer some, many beautiful #symbolisms emerge and the one that particularly caught my attention was the Keonchha ( a small bundle of rice, turmeric, coins and in some places jaggery) given to Phool when she leaves her parents’ home, as a blessing for prosperity; but as demonstrated by Manju Mai, the true gift a mother can give to her daughter should be to recognise her talent and endow her with the ability to earn her own living and go on her own journey. And the Keonchha can literally be shelved as a sweet but redundant custom. Similarly the names in the movie eg Phool and Pushpa symbolise the innocence of young brides; going to a village called Surajmukhi, and you wonder will this village move like the flower whose name it bears and allow the girls to chase their own path under the Sun? You worry about Pushpa as the sly and sleazy Inspector probes her activities, but hey his name is Shyam Manohar, the Saviour Incarnate himself! .
Kiran Rao has excelled in every aspect of the film. It has a great cast and each actor brings the character alive. Ravi Kishen is the leader of the pack with a very young and talented cast. He’s brilliant as he goes about trying to solve the Pushpa mystery but he is par-excellence in the denouement, as is Pushpa. Will the mystery be solved, will the lost brides be “found” or will they chart their own paths? For answers to that, this beautiful film needs to be watched.
Kiran Rao has chosen a simple narrative based on simple village life; tackling and highlighting apparently minor socio-cultural issues and handling them delicately, without heavy-handedness and without any chest-thumping, shrill lecturing on women’s empowerment, equality and right to choice etc. With lots of wry humour and jibes at patriarchy the film entertains and grips you at an emotional level. Yet the impact of a story told so simply is profound . The message appears to come straight and clear - handle the simple things first, the complex will sort out on their own.
Neel Kamal Darbari
