Towards the end of Laapataa Ladies, when Inspector Shyam Manohar foretells that Jaya, one of the two ‘lost ladies’, will go a long way, constable Dubey responds, “Indeed sir, she has to reach Dehradun.” Since Kiran Rao’s potent comedy of manners has been chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars this week, social media has been abuzz with outrage from those who wanted to see Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light on the road to Los Angeles. Taking umbrage to the trite citation that describes Indian women as ‘a strange mix of submission and dominance, many X-crusaders — like constable Dubey — choose only to go by the text.
In the annual din on the selection process for the Oscars, one thing that gets lost is that the Academy Award for Best International Film is bestowed on the country and not an individual. The natural follow-up question is what idea of India do we want our films to represent at the Oscars? This brings the government of the day and the politics of aesthetics into the mix.
The Film Federation of India (FFI), which picks the representative feature out of a competitive pool through a jury, is the apex body of the film industry that works with the government to promote, support, and protect the interests of the film industry. Hence the babu’s voice that seeks safety over sensitivity remains ambient. Whether it can process the winds of change where a Malayalam film gets short-listed by France and Santosh, a multi-national collaborative film set in rural North India becomes the UK’s shot at the Oscars, and appreciate the spirit of vasudhaiva kutumbakam seeping into cinema, remains in question. For now, it seems keen on saving the notion of sovereignty in cinema by leaning on what appears to be less adamant of the female voices that populated the list this year where Kottukkaali, Ullozhukku, and the National Award winner Aattam were also in the fray.
A still from ‘Laapataa Ladies’ | Photo Credit: IMDb
Read in context, the seemingly fossilised view expressed in the citation that needed some serious proofreading indicates the jury chose to reduce Laaptaa Ladies to a story of two young girls, one happily desiring to be a homemaker and the other an entrepreneurially inclined rebel. When they get swapped during a train journey, the narrative allows a humorous exploration of identity and social constructs. A deeper look suggests that the form and its reading work like a safety pin to hold up the dissenting core of Laapataa Ladies.
If one deconstructs the structure of the social satire that turns the mainstream lost-and-found formula on its head, it feels like an onion where the layers are the story but as long as you don’t cut deep, tear ducts won’t come into the business. Lifting the veil on centuries of everyday patriarchy, it questions the practice of women covering their face with a veil among the majority community at a time when outside the theatres the power brokers are keen on building a narrative around the practice of hijab among Muslim women. But Rao chooses to underline patriarchy seeps through the religious divide as in a passing sequence the hypocrisy of the Muslim man who talks of preserving the identity but keeps his wife undercover comes through. Abdul, the disabled beggar on the platform, is an observation of Muslims in the country, caught between persecution and persecution complex. Abdul is not what he looks like but that is his survival mechanism, not an insidious ploy.
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On the surface, the film is safely set in a fictitious place which feels like on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where a boy has to get over his male ego to express his love for his wife. Deepak pulls his entire body weight to say those simple three words in English.
The period is 2001 when Narendra Modi took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. In the opening train sequence, a passenger is reading a Hindi newspaper with the headline of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visiting Bhuj implying the period of the devastating earthquake. Had it been 2002, another debilitating event for our democracy would have been on the cover. This is not the first time that co-producer Aamir Khan has steered clear of Gujarat riots, in recent times. His last film Laal Singh Chaddha also conveniently erased the episode even when the creative honesty demanded otherwise.
It is not that the star with a voice has fallen silent. Along with Kiran, he has found newer ways to subvert. An independent filmmaker and the government share a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law type of relationship. In the film, when an aging daughter-in-law asks her mother-in-law whether they could be friends, the older lady tells her to give it a try. The film offers a hand by promoting organic farming and beti padhao, beti bachao but hints at the darkness beneath the shiny slogans.
Chhaya Kadam as Manju Mai in ‘Laapataa Ladies’ | Photo Credit: IMDb
Through Manju Mai, the tea stall owner in the film who serves feminism in a teacup, the film is out there to save us from a fraud sold to us in the name of tradition. But in its universe, some of the cynicism of the feminist Manju melts away when the ‘submissive’ Phool enters her space with the recipe of sweet kalakand. Phool doesn’t wilt because she has been trained in making someone else’s kitchen her own. Manju is no lawyer, social worker, or ‘NGO-type’, labels that have worn thin in the last decade.
Instead, she is an entrepreneur who has been hardened by the vagaries of life. Manju and Phool don’t just develop a covalent bond but an electrostatic attraction — where they give and take. Like Kiran and Ravi Kishan, the BJP lawmaker and socially aware actor cast to portray the malleable system in the film. Or like Aamir and Jio Studios. According to reports the media and content arm of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has garnered Rs 700 crore at the box office in 2023-24. With 11 theatre releases, 35 direct-to-digital releases, and eight original web series across languages and genres, the six-year-old company’s output is bigger than any other film production company in the country. But, for now, they are just numbers. The Oscar nomination brings the credibility that the group seeks in the intangible space of culture. Its deep resources and network provide the small film the legs to last the expensive campaign to attract the Academy voters and possibly explain the cultural nuances in storytelling. After the Lagaan experience, Aamir is wiser in making his investment. The audiences, meanwhile, are advised not to take the Jagte Raho call of the retired chaukidar of Laapataa Ladies as a joke.
Published - September 26, 2024 04:58 pm IST
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