LCMD

Post-Mortem After two years of hiatus Pradeep Sarkar of Parinita fame is back with Laga Chunari Mein Daag. The movie takes us to a small family of four in Benaras, where Shivshankar (Anupam Kher) and Sabitri Sahay (Jaya Bachchan) stay with their two daughters, Badki(Rani) and Chutki (Konkana).The family is in dire straits and to support the family Badki decides to go to Mumbai and eke out a living. She lacks educational qualification and the maddeningly murky metropolis turns a prostitute out of the pious and pure Badki and her lachrymose journey comes to full circle with Badki finding a suitable groom for herself in deus ex machina, Rohan (Abhishek). The story line is as predictable as the Ekta Kapoor serials; so much so that at times you feel that the name should have been KLaga Chunari Mein Daag instead.We have seen similar plot time and again in films like Aaina(1977), Doghi (1995), Julie (2004). Apart from the main story, we have a subplot with Shivshankar Sahay’s elder brother and his son trying to mess up the life of this already messed up family. This never really reaches anywhere; one wonders why we had it on the first place. The performances of all the three lead actresses are brilliant. Rani Mukherjee has time and again proved her mettle as one of the finest actors of our generation and gives a knock out performance as Badki. Although Konkona Sen’s character is not that well eked out, she gives it a whole new dimension with her acting abilities but for one scene when she comes to know of her sister’s dark secret. It reminds one of 15, Park Avenue. Jaya Bachchan is impeccable as Sabitri and it would not be inapt to say that it is one of her best performances till date. Anupam Kher does not have much to do and does not do much. Kunal Kapur as the carefree and bohemian Vivan, is at times a bit stiff. As for Abhishek Bachchan, it is high time he develops a style of his own and shed the shadows of his father. All his expressions still seem copy pasted from the Big B. The surprise element however is Hema Malini. She looks gorgeous and with her grace and subtle sensualitydoes full justice to the role of the middle aged Mujrawali. Pradeep Sarkar does not fully live up to the expectations but at times we see a flicker of the genius that made a film like Parinita, as he depicts the selfishness of the parents, with Sabitri accepting her daughter Badki’s money but not Badki and her profession, or the scene where Sabitri lashes out to her husband’s elder brother, carefully holding her pallu over her head. Like most Yash Chopra movies, the colour palate is tinged with an orange hue and the story with high melodrama. Although the cinematography is good, there is no such experimentation with camera angles or techniques and like most bollywood films the lazy camera is mostly content with mid-close-ups and close-ups. Benaras has seldom looked so beautiful and gorgeous, but the scenes shot in the studio do not blend well with the ones shot on location. One such scene is the balcony scene in the climax where the Ganga reminds of some cheap Durga puja lighting. The standard of the songs are not consistent. While hum to aese hay bhaiya has the look and feel of chhotey chhotey shehero se of Bunty aur Bubly, nistabdh khadi hu mein with its poignant lyrics and the whispered vocals by Shubha Mudgal and Meeta is bound to give you goose bumps. If Shantanu Moitra disappoints with his music, Swanand Kirkire surprises you with his pregnant lyrics which adds soul to the songs. There are a few questions that are left unanswered:

• Can mothers of such conservative families as that of the Sahay’s react so mildly when they come to know that their daughters had gone for a night out at the mujrawalis?
• Is Benaras that clean a city?
• Do people living there keep jumping into the river every now and then?
• Badki call up her mom to ask if she should sleep with a guy for a job. Doesn’t she have her own value system to guide her?
• Is entering the highly competitive business of escorting that easy?
• Who is Mischelle?Why and how she mentor Rani to be a top notch escort?Is she a Madam or an escort herself?
• Can Chhutki who lives in the same house actually be so ignorant about everything that is going on? Can anybody be so dumb and clueless?
• Does anybody actually keep 40 thousand cash in his or her office drawer?
• And last but not the least; what if Badki had chose to recite Humpty Dumpty instead of hanuman chalisa that day? Would Rohan have still accepted her?