A ‘non-starry’ review of Laapata Ladies

The coincidence dawned on me about 15-20 minutes into the film and I was very happy that I got my wife and daughter to watch this film on 8th March yesterday - the International Women’s Day.

And what a film for me to rewatch in less than a week than this one.

There are some films like Gandhi, 1942: A Love Story, Forrest Gump, Invictus, Jana Maitri, Laal Singh Chaddha, Vellimoonga, Sam Bahadur, 12th Fail and some more that I can watch any number of times. And to that list gets added this beautiful gem of a film by Kiran Rao - Laapata Ladies.

What a writing, casting, directing, acting, dialogues, editing, music and subtle yet clear messaging with absolutely the perfect tadka of humour!!

When I watched it the first time with my two friends last Saturday the 2nd of March, I was left so touched that I wanted to believe that reel life should turn into real life, just like I felt when I watched Forrest Gump for the first time in December 1995.

And I have reason to believe that reel life can also be true given my own experience in the state of Madhya Pradesh where the film was shot.

Back in October-November 2000, I saw a difficult and verbally abusive prison superintendent turn helpful to my utter surprise and inspiration. He is no more but his last words to me at the Gwalior railway station on 6th November 2000 still ring in my ears just like the character of Jaya in this film would remember.

As also the eerily similar words of a difficult and crass cycle shop owner in Bentinck Street on 10th May 2013.

While my belief about god being a man made creation remains intact, my belief in the ability of some human beings being able to surprise themselves and inspire others got further reinforced as I watched this film. I had happy moist eyes and there were a number of moments in the film when I clapped either out of the humour in the scene or due to the inspiration in the scene.

Once again I could become a little less fatalistic than before.

While my family and some friends can’t fathom why I like watching some movies again and again, I know for a fact that even a simple film as this needs to be watched as many times as one must, to figure out the profound messages in it.

The reason I say that is that when I first watched the film, I was left wondering why the inspector didn’t give Jaya the money whereas I strongly felt and believed that he would. But when I watched the film again I realised why the inspector’s wise inner voice would have advised against it even as some of the people like me would have strongly wanted him to.

In a way what he would do with that money is best left by the writer trio and the director to our imagination where I would like to believe that he would have donated it for a good cause.

Every question shouldn’t be answered; it leaves room for positive reasons and possibilities to be imagined and guessed for a long time to come.

And that’s the positive power of cinema which has attracted me since my childhood and is one field where I am not yet destined to be in. 😊

In a way this film also helped me partly heal from my grief of having lost last Friday the 1st of March one of my tallest role models with whom I share my birthday as well. Yesterday, the film helped me laugh again and feel inspired once again.

It was great that I could take my wife and daughter on March 8th to watch this film; partly because it was also a holiday for my wife given the Shivratri holiday yesterday and given that I am on my way to meet my late role model’s family.

Forget about women and girls, it’s a beautiful must watch film for everyone; especially men. Not that every man would like what Manju Mai describes as the fraud that is played on women! 😃😃

It’s also a perfect example of the article I shared on Facebook and Instagram yesterday as to why we need an anti-patriarchy day.

It’s amazing how the message is delivered in such a simple and profound manner through humour.

For me personally I love this film for four more reasons even as I will not reveal the real plot of the film here. (And you would be sadly mistaken to dismiss the film based on its trailer.)

First, it’s based in Madhya Pradesh in late January 2001 right after the Bhuj earthquake of 26th January and just a few months after Chattisgadh was carved out of MP. It’s a state that is close to my heart given that my first job took me to various places in the state between 2000-2003 including the kind of train travel you would see in the film, through some of the remote places in the state.

Second, it’s also a great example of the Chaos theory which is the study of phenomena that appears to be random in the beginning but over a period of time a pattern emerges and in the end all the pieces fit together and the dots connect.

Third, it has to do with the simplicity and rustic charm that resonates with my soul. My wife felt that it had a Malgudi Days kind of feel to it.

I believe it’s more.

Fourth, there was a small passage I read somewhere: “If the book of our life is already written then why bother?

Because some chapters and pages are left blank.”!!

This film is a great example of that along with another line I read back in November 2021: “Let serendipity be your co-pilot.”!!

Be that as it may, one of the certain highlights of the film besides its writing is the casting. What a terrific and refreshingly relatable performance by everyone in the film - Phool, Jaya, Deepak, his mother and grand parents, father, sister in law, nephew, friends, Manju Mai, Chotu, Abdul, station master, the wily Pradeep, his greedy and judgmental mother and more.

And of course Dubeyji played wonderfully by Durgesh Kumar of Banrakas fame of Panchayat and who can ever come close to playing inspector Manohar as well as Ravi Kishan. I can’t imagine anyone else in that role now.

Hats off to you Kiran Rao for not allowing Aamir Khan to play that role despite his insistence and rather giving it to Ravi Kishan.

I loved the way he towers over Pradeep in the end. What a simple but great screenplay!!

Even I would have loved to play inspector Manohar.

One can’t believe that Phool and Jaya are city bred actors. Or for that matter any of the other actors.

I think the dialogue of the film is: “Tumhare kho jaane ki wajah se Main apne aapko pa saki.”!!

I was quite keen to find an image to go with this review that captured all the actors in the film but couldn’t find one. It’s a film of all the actors but I had to settle with the image you see here.

Also I must highlight the simple and beautiful music of Ram Sampath that’s just right for the film.

One spoiler I will leak here is the amazing dialogue between Deepak’s mother (who also wonderfully played Vikrant Massey’s mother in 12th Fail) and his grandmother where she asks her mother in law as to why women can’t be friends to each other rather than just a sister in law, mother in law, daughter in law?

To this, the mother in law suggests: “Tirai karen?”

Do tirai this film in the auditorium first even as Netflix is the streaming partner.

As I felt after watching it for the first time with my friends on 2nd March, let there be a 1000 12th Fail, Sam Bahadur and Laapata Ladies for every Animal out there.

Truly soul uplifting.

😌🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽