Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Journey of a Woman

This fall is supposed to be full of good and bad surprises. All the previews of this flick promised that a treat is likely to come our way. And this is exactly what has gone against this movie.The highlights of the songs weren't too misleading, as far as its catchy tunes are concerned. The plot revolves around a family settled in Benaras. Shivshanker Sahay (Anupam Kher) is a retired man lives in an ancestral house, with two daughters, and his wife, Sabitri (Jaya Bachchan). The elder daughter Vibha (Rani) is more conscious of her parents' old age, their growing anxiety for making both ends meet, and her incapacity as a woman to support her parents as a son would have done. This financial crisis pushes Vibha to fetch for work in a city of opportunities where opportunities are very hard to strike. From this point, the never-ending saga of Vibha turning into Natasha brings a very predictable twist in the story. Chutki (Konkana Sen) is one of the finest artists in Indian cinema. She has done full justice to her role as a younger daughter with little understanding of the family crisis and huge dreams for future. Though it is a very well-executed movie, with finesse of Pradeep Sarkar, and all the right ingredients for a commercial hit, it is a very predictable movie. The reason for its predictability is that the previews not only revealed the entire story, but stole all the surprising elements from it.

As anyone who has seen a trailer for this movie knows, Rani Mukherjee is a girl from a fine Banaras family on the economic downslide, who goes to Bombay intending to make money to help them out and finds herself in business as a high-class professional escort.

When her younger sister, Konkona Sen Sharma, comes to Bombay to take up her own job in an ad agency, we see the two of them in a tonga on Marine Drive, the Queen's Necklace fulfilling its promise to swirl the city in glamor. When some ladies of the night pass by the carriage, Konkona makes an unthinking provincial girl's harsh comment, and her sister rebukes her sharply for her lack of compassion.

In this passage of perfect dialogue, you have the main tension driving the story, and one of its many moments of good acting between well-drawn women characters. What is going to happen if the younger sister finds out what her big sister has done in order to secure her own future? Will Rani's sacrifice separate her forever from her sister's love and respect, and from a chance at acceptance in romance and marriage?

I gather this is a Hindi movie theme known to the Indian audience. LCMD is far from perfect -- there's a mixing of story types going on probably, the old-style melodrama and something more modern and psychological -- but the good things about it make it more than worth seeing. There are four striking women characters (Jaya as mother, and Hema Malini in a special appearance that blesses the whole movie, including a dance that should have been much longer) who all seem relatively "real" in relation to Hindi movie women. They relate to each other in a decent, normal way (in small roles we have a less-nice girl and also a friend in Bombay as well).

Another good thing: the parents are less than respect-worthy without being "bad" Hindi movie parents -- father clearly is an upper-class slacker who'd rather develop "symptoms" than get a job, rent out a room, sell the property and live within his means; and mother is interestingly ambivalent about what her daughter is doing in order to be sending home the cash.

The cinematography of Banares and Bombay is worth the trip to the theaters, and the clothes are worth taking notes on, both the subtle and stunning cotton traditional clothes of the family in Banaras and Rani's high-style nicely top-of-the-city wardrobe. You might be reminded of India as the home of the most wonderful textiles on the planet.

If the story is still Bollywoodized and Bollywood-y (how did a villain know the thing he knows? why don't we see a bit more of Rani's "work life"? why do we need a song that is actually set in Switzerland -- though maybe that's ironic/postmodern?), it nonetheless is a rich enough, fresh enough, and engaging enough experience, with great performances.

As it really is about its women, the men are fine but you wouldn't focus on them in thinking about the movie. If you see the movie, you may find it raises good questions -- it it progressive? regressive? what do we mean by these things? -- worth talking and thinking about.

I'd been wanting to watch 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' for a while mainly because it starred one of my favorite actresses Konkona Sen Sharma and a used-to-be favorite Rani Mukerjee (I still like her). In spite of hearing the bad reviews, I was still considering it as I expected that in the least I'd get to see two great performances. That's all I got.

Pradeep Sarkar could have made one fine movie but with so many unnecessary (and irritating) characters, the bad writing (clichès etc) and lack of character development the film is hugely bought down. Why the hell was there a need to have the whole Tinnu Anand - Sushant Singh track (they're irritating)? A wooden Abhishek adds nothing interesting (another track that could have better been left out). Anupam Kher hams it up as a card-board selfish (misogynist?) dad. Likewise the other characters are badly written. In the beginning we see a frantic Jaya Bachchan in the hospital when the husband's had a heart attack but Konkona's Chutki is shown to be very relaxed (as if nothing happened). Was she simply in denial or was she just staying positive? Then in a later scene (before Rani becomes an escort call girl) we see that her neighbor-friend offers her money for help but she still decides to sleep with his boss. Was it simply that phone call to her mother that pushed her off the edge? Jaya Bachchan plays a caricature mother and this can be added to one of her worst performances.

In addition to all the mess, most of the songs were horrible and should have been edited out. The only songs that stand out are the first track, the song that takes place when Badki becomes Natassha and the Mujra (even though it was chopped and could have been better left as a whole). The outdoor locations (e.g. Switzerland and Italy) in the songs were unnecessary but what would a Yashraj film be without such flooze?

On the positive side, as mentioned earlier, there are two standout performances. Apart from that one scene mentioned above, Konkona is brilliant. The role itself is not something particularly special, but the actress is and she definitely leaves a mark. The scenes with her and Rani are the best. Thankfully, there are enough of those to make the film somewhat worth the watch. It was funny seeing her do the singing and dancing (as it's the first time she's done that) not that she was bad or anything.

'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' is Rani's film. The actress does one of her best acts and shows tremendous growth. Easily one of the best performances this year and all Rani needs is more great (and such different) roles in great films to mark her talent.

Hema Malini does a graceful cameo. However her dance-number is chopped into pieces. 'Would have liked to see her dance more. The cinematography is impressive, especially the shots of Banaras. On the whole, this is one severely flawed and very predictable film but with two fantastic performances that prevent me from calling it a waste of time. I'd recommend it to those who like the works of Rani and Konkona as long as they don't expect anything from the film itself.

Rani Mukherjee's performance in the lead role is good. Konkona Sen has given a great performance as always. This movie is worth a look at once.

When I went for the movie I was skeptical as I heard a review that the movie was a regressive tear jerker. Which thankfully was DEFINITELY NOT TRUE. I wonder if the reviewer actually saw the movie.

The story is about a benaras based family falling into hard times and Rani moving to mumbai to save the family from financial ruin.

A family falling into bad times is certainly not a novel concept. What is refreshing is the story line, which is definitely modern and realistic and never one dimensional. Life in Benaras and Mumbai has been captured beautifully without a trace of cliché.

The romance between Konkona and Kunaal is refreshing and so is the chemistry between Rani and Abhishek. The story line is sometimes sad but always realistic and upbeat.

Acting and Direction is superb. Rani and Konkona are superb. Rani sizzles with her looks and acting. Konkona acting is superb. Kunal has shown he is much more that a pretty face. Abhishek role is short but he does a decent job. Jaya's acting is flawless.

Kudos to the director/producer for choosing a difficult subject and handling it with great sensitivity.