Laapataa Ladies Review | A Social Satire That Ultimately Puts a Smile of Hope on Your Face

At its core, Kiran Rao’s latest film Laapataa Ladies, is a women-empowerment film that pretty much asks women to step out of the limitations set by a patriarchal society. But the most beautiful thing about this all-hearted satiric drama is that it never appears as a preachy subject. With its predominant humor layer keeping us entertained for most of the time, Laapataa Ladies conveys its politics by showing a simplistic story with grounded happiness.

The movie is set in the early 2000s’ and Deepak Kumar got married to Phool. Because of the auspicious Muhurath, there were multiple weddings happening. While returning to his home after the wedding, instead of Phool, Deepak brings Pushpa Rani home, who got married to someone else the same day and had sat next to Deepak on the train wearing a Saree similar to that of Phool. What we see in the movie Laapataa Ladies is Deepak’s efforts to find Phool.

The name of the movie is Laapataa Ladies, which means Lost Ladies. Even though the title’s literal meaning is pretty much evident from the synopsis, there is a deeper exploration of that title happening within the movie, where we see multiple women finding themselves. The film starts off giving us a feeling that it will be a satire that mocks the male-dominated arranged marriage concept. But as the movie enters the third act, everything gets an emotional tweak, and somewhat like a 12th Fail, even though the structure is predictable you would feel like rooting for those characters.

The writing of the movie is what really makes the journey special. When I saw the film’s trailer, I thought the movie’s perspective was from the male characters. But it was interesting to see how the screenplay written by Biplab Goswami, Sneha Desai, and Divyanidhi Sharma placed two female characters in places that are out of their comfort zones in order to find themselves. And in that process, they are giving space to include those characters who have either found themselves the hard way or the ones who have given up on their dreams. The screenplay wonderfully stitches together all these gender-political elements into a story that is basically about a woman-missing case. Kiran Rao presents the humor in a very subtle manner, and the progression from humor to sentiments is very smooth. Ram Sampath’s songs are pretty catchy, and the placement of those songs was particularly good.

Pratibha Ranta, as the aspiring Pushpa Rani, has performed the character really well. From having that mischievous texture in the beginning to gradually becoming the driving force of the story, Pratibha succeeds in making the audience root for her character. Nitanshi Goel presented the naivety of a conditioned woman from an orthodox India, and she also portrayed the character’s transition in a moving yet believable way. One of my favorite performances from the movie came from Chhaya Kadam as Manju Maai, who practically mentors Phool to be a woman with self-respect. Ravi Kishan, as the greedy police officer, is hilarious with that dialect. Sparsh Shrivastava, as the equally naive husband of Phool, was also convincing on screen.

There are some really screenshot-worthy lines in Laapataa Ladies that aren’t at all cheesy, and they come out very organically from the characters. I would say this combination of humor, impactful one-liners, and a climax that imparts a sense of hope makes this creation a cheerful movie that puts a smile on your face.