Exercises in Amazement

Laga Chunari is the most stupid, regressive and one dimensional film I have seen . It is suggestive of sloppiness - symbolised by the dripping of mayonnaise from the long toothed Kunal Kapoor's mouth - it is suugestive of unformed ,unfinished projects and presentations where you present a fact but are fumbling when the group leader asks you for details - . It also suggests that the writer,producer and director have not touched base with reality from any point whether it is giving depths to the story , exploring the emotions and reactions of the characters or even giving them some acceptable dimensions instead of amking them e cardboard cutout figures - it does not justify even one paisa of the phenomenal amount spent in its making and certainly not the free holidays in Switzerland which the stars got - most undeserved

I am appalled at the subject matter , I am appalled at the Yash Raj film banner's presumptive assumption that the general public is made up of cretins and dolts ( I would have liked to say "Ch....s", and "f...wits" , but wont because my daughters might complain ) which is likely to lap up whatever it gets without any discernment and I am appalled at the tagline which read Journey of a woman- it is not quite clear where she journeyed from and to where unless they are referring to the journey from Varanasi to Mumbai .

The film has no redeeming feature - even the song Laga Chunari meim daag has a rap spiel jabbing thorugh it at intervals which is most jarring .

Accepted that in certain parts of North India the plight of the girl child is terrible and one has only to recall the suicides of the three sisters of Kanpur , to remember that in these parts girls are regarded more as a burden than as a boon. In Lucknow , I have seen the girl's family and friends often do not eat or drink at wedding banquets to ease the burden on the father . Therefore the underlying premise that the woman is a burden ,is a very strong and pertinent factor .

Not only does the Yash Raj banner have the monstrous temerity and pomposity to assume that the audience is made up of credulous fools - he also assumes that some of these fools might buy his theory that the only option of a small town girl from a middle class genteel family would be to fall back on prostitution for a profession and in Mumbai at that , when logistically Delhi would have been closer and tailoring , tuitions , shopgirl , stitching petticoats or even a PCO booth operator would have been likely alternatives but then the roof would have fallen , there would have been no stencilled glass panes on the doors , nor marble in the courtyard and the ancestral building would have crumbled before the Intermission like the film.

I am also amazed that an actor like Konkona Sen Sharma acted in this film , but of course filthy lucre and a a prestigious banner as a diving board is not something she should turn her pretty little nose up - regardless of what the form and content of the film is . I am also amazed that Pradeep Sarkar made this turkey .

And last but not the least I am appalled and amazed at myself for having spent what I now regard as a phenomenal amount on the movie. The pre film lunch had been good. At home faced with the recatngular screen, a comfortable armchair and a footrest I am very likely to go to sleep . In the hall , faced with a larger edition of the TV screen and a little more noise , I put up my feet on the empty seat back and my head back and slept through much of the movie.

Oh yes and Rani is developing spare tyres and when the camera pans on her face she looks tired weary and with crows feet turning into wrinkles . Pity - she has a pretty nose .