There is no recognisable star in Laapataa Ladies, or Lost Ladies as it was titled for its world premiere and subsequent screenings at the 48th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Yet, the film sparkles like a starry night sky over a village, its brilliance unhindered by the light pollution of a metropolis.
Kiran Rao’s first directorial venture since her 2010 debut Dhobi Ghat is, at 122 minutes, short and frequently sweet. Two young brides, veiled in ghoonghats, end up with the wrong grooms at a small-town railway station. Pushpa has a hidden agenda in getting off the train with Deepak, who isn’t her husband. Meanwhile, Deepak’s bride, the more diffident Phool, finds herself abandoned on the platform. In being lost, both women find themselves – behind this hilariously twisted tale is a story of hopes and identities that lie beyond domestic bliss.
The film’s writer Sneha Desai built her screenplay from a story by Biplab Goswami. “This is her debut as a writer and she’s just remarkable,” says Rao. Desai’s experience as a theatre actor, writer and director gave the film the wit and bite that makes the absurd story work. “She’s wonderful with dialogue. She brought the script to life and created this journey full of twists and turns,” Rao adds.
Laapataa Ladies is set in the fictional state of Nirmal Pradesh, and was shot in two villages and a small town in central India. Crucially, it’s set in the winter of 2001, a time before smartphones and WhatsApp could clear up any confusion about the brides’ locations and identities. “We did a little bit of calculation based on how mobiles would have penetrated the hinterland and villages,” Rao says. The turn of the millennium seemed right for the story. “Mobile phones were already in India, but were a rarity in rural India, and could be given as dowry. We wanted to showcase the novelty of a cellular phone.”
{{/usCountry}}Laapataa Ladies is set in the fictional state of Nirmal Pradesh, and was shot in two villages and a small town in central India. Crucially, it’s set in the winter of 2001, a time before smartphones and WhatsApp could clear up any confusion about the brides’ locations and identities. “We did a little bit of calculation based on how mobiles would have penetrated the hinterland and villages,” Rao says. The turn of the millennium seemed right for the story. “Mobile phones were already in India, but were a rarity in rural India, and could be given as dowry. We wanted to showcase the novelty of a cellular phone.”
{{/usCountry}}The vibrant beauty of the countryside is a plus, as is the folksy, catchy soundtrack by Ram Sampath. “The story is so genuine and rooted, that we wanted the cast to be very authentic, very believable, of that world,” Rao says. TV actor Pratibha Ranta and teen actor Nitanshi Goel play Pushpa and Phool respectively. Sparsh Shrivastava (who played the young mastermind in Jamtara 2) plays Deepak. They join veteran character actor Chhaya Kadam (Jawan, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Andhadhun) who’s cast as the station’s tea-stall owner. Ravi Kishan appears as a corrupt cop, but has a sense of humour and gets some of the best lines.
The little nuances, down to the small-town mannerisms and dialects, are what makes the absurd story believable, and the message of self-discovery easier to catch. “Of course, we wanted to seed a lot of ideas and issues and themes, and along the way, use humour to tackle them,” Rao says. “Humour is a great vehicle for any kind of message because it disarms you.” At the festival, there were plenty of laughs and applause, a win for producers Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao and Jyoti Deshpande.
Meenakshi Shedde, TIFF’s senior programme advisor for South Asia, describes Laapataa Ladies as a “delicious comedy” that “weaves in powerful social and feminist commentary”. The film opens in theatres in India in January. It’s a world away from Rao’s Dhobi Ghat, but one India will find familiar anyway.