The Hindi title translates as something like “lost” ladies, though technically speaking the two females in question are misplaced by dint of negligence, a notion that makes this otherwise strained comedy interesting in terms of what it has to say about the status of women and the institution of matrimony in India. Though the plot device of two brides being switched out accidentally has a certain Restoration comedy feel to it, here it manages to make sense within the context of traditional arranged marriages, which still holds sway in certain parts of India. The fact that the story takes place in 2001 lends more creedence to a plot that some will find absurd, but it probably had more to do with the available technology, since early model cell phones and the absence of widespread internet figure into the workings of the story. In a nutshell, two brides from different weddings get on the same train to travel to their respective husbands’ home towns. They are both veiled in very similar outfits (as are quite a few other women on the train—it’s apparently the auspicious season for weddings), the train is crowded, and the journey long, so when one of the husbands yanks his wife off the train to get off at their stop, he pulls the wrong hand. His real bride continues on, unaccompanied, until the end of the line.

Once the husband, Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastava), discovers his mistake, it becomes imperative to find what happened to his real bride, Phool (Nitanshi Goel), who, it turns out, is in a distant village on her own. More to the point, Jaya (Pratubha Ranta), the woman Deepak pulled off the train, provokes suspicion in the village, especially that of the conniving police chief (Ravi Kishan), who wonders why she doesn’t seem all that much bothered by her predicament. Is she the “bandit bride” who’s been swindling innocent men on a crime spree? Given that this is an Indian production and is clearly aimed at a general audience, director Kiran Rao allows the various storylines plenty of time to develop, so as Phool is adopted by the impoverished demimonde of the town she finds herself in, and thus comes to understand the true value of friendship, Jaya insinuates herself into the life of Deepak’s village where her academic knowledge of agriculture is utilized to help save the local rice crop. Meanwhile, the police chief endeavors to get to the bottom of Jaya’s providence in order to extract some sort of monetary gain. 

Though the twists and turns are predictable and the comedy uneven, the feminist undercurrents are effective given the current situation in India. Phool learns about being self-reliant while Jaya’s situation (spoiler!) is such that she is perfectly justified in trying to escape her marital fate, since the man she is betrothed to is a widower whose first wife met a horrible end. And because the better jokes revolve around traditional gender-based beliefs, especially with regard to things like face coverings, the value of “girls’ education,” and whether a wife has to obey a husband who doesn’t have her best interests at heart, the movie maintains its ability to surprise until the end. 

In Hindi. Opens Oct. 4 in Tokyo at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Human Trust Cinema Shibuya (03-5468-5551).

Laapataa Ladies home page in Japanese

photo (c) Aamir Khan Films LLP 2024