I had a sister in benaras and had to go to bambai(as pronounced in hindi) to solve the family's financial crisis... and something and all happened and i was rohan and proposing suddenly to rani mukherjee.
I was just inside the hall enjoying being part of this well presented film 'Laaga chunari mein daag'.. sometimes as rani's character.. sometimes as abhishek's.
I have a question about the title, but I will keep that for the end of this post.
Ok. How was the movie..
Please don't see it if you like rani mukherjee so much that you will cry when she cries on screen.. The usual sacrificial elder sister story that we have seen in many hindi and tamil and actually all language films.. but presented so well you wouldn't complain. The story's bottomline is easily understood from the title of the movie...Laaga chunari mein daag.. which means my veil got stained.. or something similar.
About a girl who forces herself into a becoming an escort for settling the family's financial committments and allowing her family to live better while she lives every moment with a doubt as to when she should stop doing it. And once her young sister comes to live with her in bambai and gets to know what is happening with her sibling, things try to unfold emotionally. Seen this in many movies with the same storyline before, and you would watch this one only to know whether it has a happy ending or a sad one.. and also if you love rani mukherjee on screen like me.
For expressions and speaking many sentences with just facial expressions and some tear-filled eyes, our own rani, abhishek, and mrs.iyer(konkona sen) pull it off much much better than their hollywood collegues with multiple oscars.
Abhishek was the cold breeze for me... for whenever he was there he gave me a relief from the emotions 'vibha'(rani mukherjee) was going through in the movie.. and the tears collected in my eye pockets go back without falling off embarrasingly. :o)
Abhishek's unclean dhadiwala charm works for him.. when I try it, atleast one friend will ask me questions as if trying to know whether I hadn't taken a bath in days.. or worser the friend will offer to pay the bills at the restaurant talking it over in a manner like I am financially broke enough to even not get a shave. :o) Works for abhishek though. hmm.
Even off screen, until last year, I always thought, abhishek and rani are such friends that they will get married. But that bathameez bunti gave up bubli for some umrao jaan. How can I forgive him for that.. May be I will if he does bunti-babli II like the rumours are saying. For now, he is excused because he is making it up with rani in this movie atleast.
The cast of the movie, its colors, locations, and importantly the poetically descriptive movie title.. were all carefully chosen and it showed through.
Though at places I didn't like the movie because rani had to look sacrificial.. but the package didn't stress anything too much. There were no blood thirsty villains, nor total family crying over some stopped marriage like mishap.. neither was father/mother dying though they showed occassions where they have severe heart attacks or emotional attacks which are usually pre-cursors in indian cinema to kill a character.
So, overall the movie was a happy-ending, easy, colorful one.. for a normal person who would like a simple emotional movie.
At the end of the movie.. you get a song free for remembering on all occassions. Be it you are very happy and someone asks you why.. or be it you are very sad and someone asks you why, or may be you did a mistake.. or whatever somebody asks, you can just sing... "hum... tho.. aise hai bhayya.. arre.. hum..tho.. aise hai bhayyaaa"
For the question I had on the title
I didn't understand what "Laaga" meant.. or why they chose that.. I stupidly even thought it was a spelling mistake until I saw that the hindi name of the movie is also 'laaga'.. for me, it should have been Lagaa chunari meing daag... if you understand the difference of why it is laaga.. let me know.
