Laaga expectations mein daag!

 

 

“Every (Bollywood) movie has five limbs – acting, music and dance, art, dialogues and direction. Dismember one from the rest and the movie seems incomplete, even if not dead. The all-important head on the shoulders of a film still remains the storyline. Get that wrong and then irrespective of the limbs, the motion picture twitches to an inevitable death. Laaga Chunari Mein Daag will be one such casualty.

The story, so painfully old, is that of two girls leading happy-if-not-very-affluent lives with their parents in Benaras until financial difficulties force the elder (Badki – Rani Mukherjee) to go to Mumbai to work. And the oft-villified city yet again lives up to its reputation by taking the poor girl for a ruthless ride. It is the only time when wandering out of the hall for popcorn is not recommended for, after facing the expected – sexual advances – in a call centre, Badki turns into a high-profile escort!

The movie, about the relationship between sisters, about middle class families and their money issues, about women’s helplessness and emancipation, was visually pleasing but rather trite. Parineeta, based in the ‘50s, given the ‘60s treatment, with songs from the ‘70s was a fluke by virtue of its perfect timing and a good story. This time, Laaga Chunari... has been given a contemporary treatment but the barely passable story is so old that it hobbles on a gnarly stick and the dialogues are really bad.

Somebody please tell Pradeep Sarkar that what audiences want in 2007 is a film that is in tune with 21st century sensiblities, not just in parts, but in its entirety. Watch it for Hema Malini and Konkona Sen, but watch it only if you have exhausted all possible means of entertaining yourself on a lazy afternoon.