Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Journey of a Woman

Writing about LCMD has been on my to-do list for quite a while and destiny chooses this day to make it happen. Laaga Chunari Mein Daag at prima-facie narrates a tale of a girl who hails from from a devout & conservative middle-class family enriched with strong values. Sadly the family is faced with financial difficulties and the girl embarks on a journey to big city for a bailout. Circumstances force the girl from the Holy city to compromise her values to make a living in the Sin City. From there its about leading a dual life of in the garb of "Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde" and a subsequent "forced" love track.

There appears to be more-than-warranted sub-plots into the story-line which spoils the narrative. The director seems to be at loss as to what he wanted to put across. Journey from Benaras to Mumbai plot is straight lift from Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili. Parineeta being a period drama warranted a rich looked backed with a slow narrative for the audience to connect. However the style (slow-narrative) seems ill-suited for Laaga Chunari Mein Daag.

This movie could have been yet another feather in Rani's cap as her character is author backed and a feminist storyline. Konkana is as usual spot on. Jaya B & Anupam do their part with ease. Jr. B seems to have an extended special appearance.

There was a song by a similar title, sung many years back by the legendary K.L. Saigal.

Based on the old format about poverty, a movie production company hires a place in the Northern Indian city of Benares, where two sisters, Natasha and Chutki live with their parents. The father, Shivshankar Sahay, is against renting out his house to the movie company but has to accept it due to financial reasons. One night, upon request from one of the female members of the company, Natasha and Chutki go and watch a dance against their parents wishes. At the end of the performance, the three visit the female dancer, who tells Natasha that she is very pretty. But soon events turn for the worse and the movie production company, who had paid the family for the use of their house for filming, decide to withdraw and demand to have their money back. In the meantime, Natasha, who has had to leave college and help at home, has to admit her father to a hospital as he suffers heart problems and has to pay for him to be admitted. She decides to go to Mumbai and get a job as an actress as the female member of the movie had promised her. But nothing works out and in order to support her family, Natasha is forced to make up her mind as what she wants to do. But events force her to turn into a high class prostitute.

This is one movie, that Rani Mukherjee, as Natasha, tries to show her versatility as an actress and has proved it. The other bit of excellent acting is by Jaya Bachchan as her mother and also Abhishek and Konkona Sen. But Hema Malini, who makes a special appearance as the dancer, is just magnificent even though she's in it as "special appearance." The movie also stars Tinu Anand as Shishankar Sahay's evil brother.

Conclusion: This is worth watching at least once.

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.

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.

This is not a must watch. But definitely worth your time. I don't know why this movie was so underrated. Excellent performance from every characters. Somehow, in the early scenes of 'happy days' I felt that Konkona as 'chutki' has outclassed Rani in performance! Also the acting of (by Taraana?) as the character 'sophie' needs mention. All in all everyone performed very well. Abhishek's entry as Kunal's elder brother in the end is predictable. The thing I most like is the simple happy ending. Usually, a movie with such high voltage drama ends in a certain way but this is not.

So at least watch it for the sake of climax!