Laapataa Ladies being India’s official entry to the Oscars persuaded me to watch the movie. I believe that it is one of the well-made films of the year but I cannot decide if there’s hope at the Academy Awards.
Kiran Rao’s ‘Laapataa Ladies’ is India’s official entry to the Oscars in 2024. The Oscars have been the sour grapes for Indian film industries and this time it doesn’t really look like things might be any different (unless Kiran Rao has a stronger lobby than anyone knows about). Regardless, Laapataa Ladies has garnered the right kind of attention and for the right reasons because it is arguably one of the most well-made films I’ve seen in Bollywood.
As the name suggests, it’s the story of two ladies who get lost in a train journey to their in-laws’. The story takes place in 2001 and in some unheard remote areas of India so understandably, both women have no means to be found. They battle the circumstances with the very limited means they have and whatever scraps of help they manage to find. Through their journey of being found, an understory unveils itself, albeit not so subtly, of patriarchy and subjugation of women.
Laapata Ladies is a feministic film and Kiran Rao hasn’t shied away from the central theme of countering patriarchy throughout the span of the film. The ‘Laapataa Ladies’ are Phool and Jaya (who calls herself Pushpa Rani), two different types of women (girls) whose paths collide at one point on a train journey. Jaya gets mistaken for Phool by her husband, thanks to the ‘ghoonghat’ or the veil that brides are expected to wear, and he takes her along to his home without even a hint of doubt at any point. Phool, however, gets down at a random station eventually and barely protects herself from falling to predatory hands until some help is found. Her character is a carefully written stereotype hailing from rural India – an innocent, pure little girl who believes that her purpose in life is to belong to her husband and master the art of cooking. No matter the circumstances, she never once blames marriage or her husband, doesn’t even take off her wedding attire because ‘how else would her husband recognize her?!’, and takes over the kitchen even at the place that offers her refuge. And even through that internalized patriarchal demeanor, she gets an arc and a climactic identity of her own – through her acquaintance with the strong and fierce Manju Mai.
The character of Manju Mai (played by Chhaya Kadam) is one of the highlights of the film, and arguably the biggest catalyst of the storyline and the thematic purpose of the movie. She runs a tea and snacks stall at the railway station and lives alone, because she was bold enough to kick her abusive husband and son out – something truly revolutionary in 2001 rural India. She delivers some of the mic-drop dialogues in the film and drive the anti-patriarchal narration forward even more than the leading ladies. Phool finds in her an inspiration to push her own boundaries and decide that when she is found by her husband, she too shall be more than what the society expects her to be. Manju Mai’s character is written as a facilitator for Phool’s journey of forming her own identity from a dependent girl who cannot even recall her husband’s village name, to someone who understands the importance of self-dignity and eventually finds a voice.
Jaya/Pushpa has her distinct storyline of a more empowered girl who wants to study organic agriculture but is forced to be married to a terrible man who may have murdered his former wife over dowry. The instance of getting swapped on the train is a blessing in disguise for her and she manages to turn it into a life-changing opportunity. She is smarter than her contemporaries so she doesn’t panic when a random man drags her out of the train to his house – but calculates how she can utilize that mishap as an escape route. She does face problems when a suspecting police officer tracks her down and threatens to hand her over to her husband – but a positive turn of events leave us all very happy for Jaya at the end. Jaya’s character is very different from Phool’s – she resents being married and wants to be educated, but cannot find a way to accomplish her desire. The conflict of the storyline proves to be a blessing to her and Kiran Rao has created a character that is enduring, and soft yet resilient at the same time. She is strategic but never vile – in fact, she becomes the key reason for Phool to rejoin her husband and for the film to climax into a heartwarming ending.
As much as this is a women-oriented film, the men do a fair job at playing their patriarchal roles, as do the household women with internalized patriarchy driving their everyday lives. The simple symbols such as veils, choice of food, freedom to draw, to call out a husband’s name and the inability to deny giving dowry are the powerful symbols of everything that’s wrong with the world and deserve to be brought to everyone’s attention. Biplab Goswami and Sneha Desai have incorporated the symbols in a compelling story and delivered a rather strong message with humor employed as a tool.
Is Laapataa Ladies a reasonable choice to the Oscars? Perhaps, mainly because of the narration of the feministic issues that persisted in India alongside the story. I do not, however, believe that an award can be brought home because it has been presented in the ‘International Feature Film’ category that is one of the toughest. We do not know if Laapataa Ladies has done enough to fight the world’s best. But we surely can hope, and do the film justice by giving it our time.
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