Unveiling the Veiled Society through the lenses of
Laapataa Ladies
Dr. Jayashree Mukherjee
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Mahishadal Girls’ College
Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India
Abstract:
Kiran Rao’s second movie ‘Laapataa Ladies’ which is penned by Sneha
Desai, which is set against the backdrop of rural India explores the
multifaceted lives of its female protagonists dealing with the themes of social
and personal freedom, quest for self-Identity and the expectations of the
society from the female. The sudden disappearance of two newly wedded brides
and their search uncovers layers of truths that the society needs to confront.
The search is not only a physical one but also have a metaphorical significance
as the ladies sets out to rediscover themselves as new entity. The incident
taught them their lessons for life. Both
the ‘laapataa ladies’, at the end of the movie reaches their desired
destinations not only physically but also mentally. They got to understand the
true meaning of their life, both determined to create an identity of their own
in their specific way.The story is told with a juxtaposition of realism and
subtle humour. The movie also criticizes some of the regressive social customs
prevalent in Indian rural areas. The movie has received high critical acclaims
and is also hit commercially.
Keywords: Dowry, Identity, Journey, Kiran Rao,
Matrimony, Patriarchal society, Quest, Sneha Desai, Women empowerment
“A small movie with a
big heart,” Kiran Rao’s second film as a director, ‘Laapataa Ladies’ stands as
an epitome of simplicity, voicing a strong issue like ‘women empowerment’ in a
very easy and modest way. Set in a rural background the movie projects common
man with immense simplicity and moral values, to the delight of the audience
advocating that goodness in this gory world still exists. The movie gives
gentle lessons of morality with drizzles of humour. A movie projecting two lost
newlywed brides in an unknown land had the scope of projecting a very dark,
gruesome, and frightful ending. In the current age of rapes, abductions, sex
rackets, serial murders, intimate partner violence etc, the film evolves out to
be one with immense feel-good factor. While our brains are worried about the
predicaments of the new brides, our hearts keep us pacifying that there is
nothing to worry. The movie reminds us of a famous prayer “If people were for
people all people everywhere, there be a lot less people to worry about and a
lot more people to care.” The movie projects extremely down to earth, rural
people with their golden hearts ready to help each other in times of need. Such
characters contribute towards making the world a better place to live in and
restore our faith on humanity.
The movie is set in
the fictional land of Nirmal Pradesh, which is a Hindi speaking belt around the
time frame of 2021. The story initiates as a newly wedded bride Phool Kumari
(Nitanshi Goyel) heads towards her new home (In-Laws’) which is now supposed to
be her own home after marriage, with her husband Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastav).
The irony lies in the fact that the new bride does not know the name or address
of her ‘new own home’ and is totally dependent on her husband during the
journey. Deepak advises Phool to keep
her jewellery safe with him as public transports are not safe for travelling
while wearing jewellery. The innocent villages girl, like a dutiful wife does as
directed by her husband and learns a very interesting lesson from him as well,
which prohibits her from seeking help from the police, even in times of extreme
need. “Jewar chori, do dukh pana, Chhota dukh chori bada dukh thana” (if
jewellery gets stolen one gets sad but visiting a police station makes one
sadder). The simple incident depicts the
two common incidents of jewellery getting stolen in public transports and the
consequent unpleasant experience one faces after visiting a police station in a
very subtle way.
The unfortunate
incident of not recognizing his wife Phool in vail leading to wife swapping and
ultimately Phool getting lost in a completely unknown station amidst strangers
is one of the plots of this movie. On the other hand, the exchanged wife Jaya,
her struggles to hide her identity to fulfil her dreams of higher studies is
the other plot. Both these ‘laapataa ladies’ lands in a total unanticipated
situation as their life takes an unexpected turn. Both got married and set out
from their homes with their newly married husbands for their new homes but
instead of the desired destination Phool landed in the railway station and Jaya
went to a different house. Humanity showed its face in both the situations when
Phool befriended benevolent Manju Maai (Chhaya Kadam) and Chotu. They not only
gave her food and shelter but taught her some lessons for life. She learnt to
have faith and trust complete strangers apart from following her husband
blindly that she has been doing until she got lost. Neither she knew the
station from where she boarded the train, nor her destination. A very common
scenario has been presented here as in most Indian village household the women
are oblivious of anything and everything happening outside the four walls of
their houses. They blindly trust the man of the house dedicating her entire
life and fortune for them. Fortunately, Deepak in this movie is a genuine good
human being and not a ‘firaad’ (fraud)desperately searching for his wife Phool
throughout the movie. Though Phool became highly sceptical whether her husband
will accept her after remaining out of the house for three days. This again
shows how the society blames the woman for everything that happens to her. A
girl gets lost or raped due to no fault of her own, but the society never fails
to judge the ‘second sex’ for its own misfortunes. However as already
mentioned, this movie is decked with golden hearts and helpful people. Phool
after spending four tense nights at the railway station finally returned and
was welcomed with open arms by her in-laws. But Phool promised Manju maai to do
something of her own in her life. She even earned her first income by preparing
sweets for Manju maai’s stall. She learnt to be self-sufficient and independent
as Manju Maai told her that women are self-sufficient enough not to require any
man in their life and that is the reason the patriarchal society desperately
tries to keep the women oblivious of their capabilities.
The other newly
wedded wife Jaya faces different kind of challenges in her life. Jaya had to
struggle to fulfil her ambition for higher studies. The dreams of a woman are
not always supported by her family as well. Jaya’s mother forced her to get
married to Pradeep (Bhaskar Jha), who serves as the antagonist in the movie.
Jaya wanted to study further and establish herself in life. She has seen all
her agricultural lands getting sold for money and that may be a reason she
wants to study organic farming in Dehradun. Asit is said that life always gives
a second chance to everyone, when Jaya was about to end all her dreams and
compromise with her fate life gave her a chance to fulfil her dreams. Deepak
mistook her for his wife Phool and took her with him. The regressive concept of
‘veil’ happed to be an instrument in the way of her progress in life. She took
the opportunity and set out to fulfil her dreams nevertheless she did not
forget to try her best to find Phool before she goes.
The movie portrayed
the darker side of Indian Matrimony in a subtle way. Matrimony has been the
setting for many Bollywood movies but recent many films are projecting the
darker side of it. Films like Heaven (2019), Four More Shorts Please! (2019),
Bandish Bandits (2020), Indian Matchmaking (2020) etc have delved into the
negative and darker side of Indian matrimony elucidating themes like dowry,
family pressure, social expectations etc. Laapataa Ladies presents the
villainous groom Pradeep, who married Jaya only for dowry after killing his
first wife. For Pradeep and his family, marriage is a medium of extorting
wealth from the in-laws and getting a free maid in the form of wife. We can see that taking dowry was considered
as prestigious and as Deepak has not taken any dowry, people concluded that
something is wrong with him. At the end of the movie poetic justice is rendered
and we get immense satisfaction to experience the harassment and extortion of
Pradeep by the police. A good lesson was taught to Pardeep by the police. The
(not so) corrupt police officer helps Jaya to fulfil her dreams from getting
rid of Pradeep. We experience a beautiful instance where a male helps a village
girl to fulfil her dreams, Patriarchy fixing the crown of womanhood.
The movie conveys a
very strong message to audiences against age old stereotypical rules and norms, which are backdated and
unscientific. As the title translates as ‘missing ladies,’ The ladies of rural
India lose not only their identity as a human being, but also their desires,
dreams, ambitions etc after marriage. The simple tale of simple people projects
the very complicated concepts of rural society. A woman shows no concern about
the outside world and is totally dependent of the male counterpart for her
wellbeing. Society teaches women to always look downwards once she wore the
veil– “Ek baar ghunghat le liea to age nehi niche dekh k chalna sikho.” The
irony lies in the fact that the ladies tie ‘khoicha’ to their sari for the
well-being of their husband, but no practical knowledge for their upliftment is
imparted to these ladies. The only skill they are taught of is to manage
household chores efficiently. Phool is proud of the fact that her mother has
taught her how to accept an unknown kitchen effortlessly and prepare delicious
food but is unaware of her husband’s address. The society does not consider it
important that a woman should know anything other than household works.
The movie also
projects some of the very common situations and conditions that we experience
every day in our life. The fact that a woman embraces every relationship
efficiently but what she fails to become is a friend has been emphasised in the
movie. How relations thrive better if there is friendship in it. Jaya is not
only an enlightened girl herself but also tries to help others to fulfil their
creative desires. Deepak’s mother was more than happy when Jaya admires her
culinary skills. She perhaps was never admired for the same by anyone. She
confesses the fact that she never made lotus steam fry for herself, though it
is one of her favourites as the men of the house do not like it. From this we
can understand how women are trained since childhood to neglect their own
likings and dislikings. And they do it readily without complaining or
questioning the society.
All well that ends
well. Though the movie began with the unpleasant event of two newly wedded
brides getting lost among unknown people but it ends with the unknown people
turning into the biggest support for the ladies. The strangers immensely
contributed helping the two ladies to reach their desired destination. New
relationships were built. Phool and Jaya both got another home, away from home
and people to care for them. The movie ends in a positive note about humanity.
Their physical journey comes to an end however the metaphorical journey
continues. We can hope Phool to be happy in her married life while creating
some identity of her own and Jaya to be successful in her endeavours of
popularising organic farming in India and getting established in life.
References
Rao, Kiran. Laapata Ladies. Mumbai,
2024.
Gupta, Trisha. "‘Laapataa Ladies’: A
tale of clunky feminism; a plea for a state more benevolent." The
Indian Express (2024).
Sharma, Tamanna. "Diving into the
Contradictory Motifs incorporated in Laapta Ladies: A realistic delineation of
Society." International Journal of English Language, Education and
Literature Studies 3.3 (2024): 50-55.