Lipstick Under My Burkha

A power packed quest to break the barriers set for women.

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.

Lipstick Under My Burkha is a rather over rated film. It is watchable and reasonably interesting though not extraordinarily so.

It appears that this movie got a great deal of extra publicity only because it was banned initially. Why it was banned is anyone's guess for there is absolutely nothing in it to warrant a censure let alone a ban. Anyway, all publicity in this business is good so to that extent the ban gave LUMB a better 'must watch' factor!

The plot is about 4 women, their lives, their feelings. It is somewhat stretched, somewhat disjointed and somewhat connected. The acting was good, the cinematography good, the sets realistic but something was missing.

LUMB is watchable but it is certainly not a brilliant film by any stretch of the imagination.

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