Lipstick Under My Burkha

I like the fact the movies touches a serious topic but theres also places where they've chosen a lighter and comedic note to convey the point. Its sad but true how women are judged so brutally on their character even for the slightest common things like wearing clothes of their own choice, choosing partners, their career, their family life. The four characters of different ages in the same society (same house) try their best to deal with their lives but because the society as a whole cannot be changed the end makes one think on a lot of topics and how feminism is still needed.

Film showcases the life of four women's ranging from teenage girl to the one in her 60's and how they have different desires and how society norms and culture bounds them to fly, but even after facing all the odds and obstacles in their way, they still manages to find their way to claim their desires through small acts of courage but secrets reveals and according to the law every actions has its opposite and equal reactions is what movie is all about. Alankrita Shrivastava skillfully tells the stories which supported equally well by its ensemble cast especially hatsoff to Mam Ratna Pathak Shah who opted for "Usha aka Buaji" an aged women with bold desires and she has nailed it with her Lit performance. The film was the bold step towards women empowerment and women's quest for their freedom on daily basis. Film didn't get its due credit as it should, may be because of its bold screenplay and storytelling but it should be watched

The movie is directed by Alankrita Shrivastava who was assistant director to Indian Hindi movies Director Prakash Jha's two films Apaharan and Rajneeti - who has supported her to produced this film.

The story is of four women - Usha (Ratna Pathak) Leela (Aahana Kumra), Shirin (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Rehana (Plabita Borthakur) - all staying in the same chawl - a mix of religious identities and age groups

The story is narrated on a parallel track of a novel that Usha's voice-over reads parts of a Hindi porno novel "Lipstick wale Sapne"

Usha is in mid fifties who loves to read porno novels,

Leela is a sex-hungry girl in love with a photography and aspiring to be a celebrity, but is engaged with another guy - yet continues to have sex and love her lover

Shirin is a housewife who secretly does a job of sales women to support her family when her unemployed husband is out having an extra- marital affair and whenever he comes home, is obsessed with treating his wife Shirin as sex object.

And Rehana is a college going girl who wants to break free from her religious conservative Muslim family. She goes out from her house wearing a Burkha but craves for all western things - music, dresses, dance, life-style etc., is a shop-lifter at shops in malls of expensive things she likes.

For sure all the four characters would exist in real life - and a story on them would be interesting. But the living context does not make it practically plausible, but this are some filmy liberties that are permitted when the director's aim is to put a specific point across.

The basic idea of the director is to give audience a SHOCK TREATMENT by showing a lot of sex scenes from the view point of being a women.

Except a few well written and directed scenes, the film falls down to being a B-C grade cinema.

Girls and women exists who also crave for sex as men is well presented. They want to break free of all the norms society lays on them. What the movie ends up in is a lop - sided portrayal of women and girls. But the point is strongly delivered.

Many people think engaging in sex, protests, anger, doing something different that no one approves is breaking Free and being LIBERAL. which is such a poor view of liberalism.

Among the four actress - Ratna Pathak and Konkona Sen excel in their portrayals, especially their culmination scenes where

Ratna is reminded of her old age and her looks and her desires and LOVE, but termed as "shameful" by throwing her on the streets. That scene broke my heart into pieces

And the culmination scene of Konkona being brutally raped by her husband and asked to stop working is another scene that brought tears to my eyes..

It is a bit difficult to sit thought the entire duration of the film without getting bored - but I sat through curiously to see - what the Director had in mind to conclude with.

Direction is below average, some scenes are so stupid, some sub-plots and characters hard to believe or digest.

The depiction of these four women too is shallow and it is only for the credit of Konkona and Ratna Pathak's maturity that - there is some depth in their characters because of their portrayals - the other two ladies are okay - nothing to write about.

There are so many (may be more than 100) scenes where the director has not taken care of continuity while shooting or editing. The placement of extras keep on changing places, and so do the make up of artists.

Overall - I think the purpose was to make a feminist point about putting across women's sexual desire issues strongly - right ON THE FACE as a slap to society in general. The film on a large part succeeds in that. But there is no subtlety in anything.

The same points could had been made with more force without using so many sexual scenes and dialogues.

If this is what they call women liberalization movement, we have to still go a long way back and start all over again...

I give this movie 5.25 rating out of 10.

This is somewhat of an offbeat movie to come out of the mainstream Hindi movie industry. The topic and the narration is refreshing. The setting in Bhopal (a non-metro city) helps. There's shock, humour and sadness in equal doses. I just wished the ending would have been more wholesome rather than leaving things unsaid. By the way, the movie certainly deserved the A (Adult) certification it was handed by the Film Certification Board and you'll realize in no time why it ran into controversies.

Four women, Four stories, and all of them are linked by desires, craving for affection, breaking free from social norms, the battle within to achieve bliss. Co-written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, Lipstick Under My Burkha, a black comedy; presents what it means to be a woman in a small town which is subjugated by males. A city on edge of getting modernised but mindset of the people isn't too willing to adjust. Produced by Prakash Jha, the movie premiered in Tokyo and Mumbai Film Festivals, where it won the Spirit of Asia Prize and the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality.

Shireen Aslam (Konkana Sen Sharma), a Muslim woman works as a door to door sales woman without the knowledge of her husband. Rahim her husband is sexually dictating, and is interested only in sex while Shireen craves for his affection and care.

Leela, a Hindu woman (Aahana Kumra), owns a beauty parlour and isn't content with her work and has a different business plan with her Muslim boyfriend with whom she has sexual relations too and planning to escape at the first chance. She wishes to travel around the world with her boyfriend Arshad who runs a photo studio. She regularly arranges meetings with destination wedding planners with the expectation for a free world tour.

Rehana Abidi (Plabita Borthakur) is a college student fascinated over Milley Cyrus, stitches burkhas for her family store. She shoplifts from malls for makeups to to wear at college, shoplifts from malls and changes to her ultra modern dresses which she hides in her backpack on way to college, all this hidden from her parents.

55 year old Usha Parmar (Ratna Pathak Shah), a respected Buaji in the area runs her family business loves to read erotic fictions at nights. She falls in love with a swimming instructor and indulges in phone sex with him through a fictional character called Rosy who becomes the main protagonist in the movie. Rosy becomes the symbol for everything that the four woman ever wanted to have.

The charming story has been carefully narrated by the writer with a lot of tenderness, sadness and sexual truthfulness with hilarity. All four women are staying in same environs and share an silent bond of fighting a never ending battle to be happy in their life. All of them want to break free, breaking free from their conservative families and from a sexist society that forces them to toe the line.

The writer/director Alankrita Shrivastava has very carefully shown sexuality without a bit of impropriety. The cast she has chosen is the best she could have. Even the newer actors like Plabita Borthakur and Aahana Kumra have excelled in their respective performances against veterans like Ratna Pathak Shah and Konkona Sen Sharma. The Burkha that is mentioned in the movie is actually the stigmas associated with religions and all the four women in the movie have been trying to shed it off, whether material, emotional or cultural. The movie ends in a very honest note where it has been shown that nurturing dreams is an offence for women in small towns even today.