Responsibilities & Decisions. Often they go hand in hand. When the one who is suppose to take responsibilities shy away from it, somebody else will be forced to take it. One who undertakes these responsibilities should have to take decisions and they should have the authority to proceed on the decision. Sometimes the burden of responsibility make one blind to certain options and they often land up with false decisions. Each decision is said to be good. However they are only good like the knowledge we gathered, logic we applied and options considered. As said in the movie, in cities one may not get more than one chance. In Laaga Chunari mein Daag, Pradeep Sarkar try to narrate a story of a village girl who undertake the family responsibility.
Badki (Rani Mukharji) & Chutki (Konkana Sen Sharma) are daughters to Shivshankar Sahay (Anupam Kher) & Sabitri (Jaya Bachchan). Shivshankar Sahay is a retired professor without much balance and his pension is blocked for some reason. He is a heart patient who doesn’t want to take more responsibility of the family, where Sabitri try to meet the ends by doing small jobs like tailoring. Shivshankar often used to say that if he had a son, he don’t have to worry about the family much. Badki & Chutki are close friends and wander in the streets of Banaras. Where Badki is just 10th passed, the family made it as a point to teach the brilliant Chutki to the maximum. One day, Badki decided to take up the challenge of feeding the family and train to Mumbai. The little help received in Mumbai was not sufficient for Badki to stay in a job, where she is not good in English and her lack of qualification and experience didn’t do any good. In a critical moment, Badki had to take a decision and this decision in turn made her as a sex worker, but to the high class people. As guided by a friend, she was trained to be a top class escort and the family back at home starts receiving regular money orders. Chutki got her MBA and now landed in Mumbai too where she meet Vivaan (Kunal Kapoor) the handsome heartthrob of girls. Chutki’s spontaneous responses attracted Vivian’s interest. Badki meantime meets Rohan (Abhishekh Bachchan) in a conference in Switzerland. I cannot tell you more for sure.
Beauty of Banaras is beautifully shown in the film. The production house known for its big canvas pictured one of the beautiful pilgrim places nicely. The life of a family in Banaras too shown in believable way. When the camera change its focus to Mumbai and then to Switzerland and more, the engrossing feel remained and when the story ends in Banaras, the same feel good impact remained. So, it is a 100/100 for cinematography.
Music & Choreography mixes very well. ’Hum To Aisa Hai’ and ’Kachchi Kaliyaan’ were both brilliant. However, the Mujra song could have been better for its choreography. Music with choreography is excellent for 2 songs and average in all others. Say Music Choreography combo will get 75/100.
Rani Mukherji did an excellent performance as usual. Simply good! However, it is Konkana Sen Sharma who steals the frames in the second half. Believe me, Konkana have the steal show ability on screen and whoever act with her will be reduced to the second attention. I liked her in Metro, Omkara and now in LCMD. Kunal Kapoor is brilliant in his looks and smart acting. Abhishek Bachchan only had a small role and he was his usual self. Anupam Kher played his role as we expected from him, where Jaya Bachchan’s performance is top top. Eventhough her character was let down by the writers the actress shown her class for sure. Other supporting cast were sufficient too. So, it is a brilliant performance in general. I can give 90/100 for performance.
However, the movie lack in one department. That is the story. We are supposed to go to the movie with a brain. Yes? If yes, then the story have many loop holes. The reason for the decision is not taken wisely and the climax was the ultimate of compromise for the sake of it. When the initial scenes were brilliant and a good launch pad is built, the missile was missing the payload. Planting of Badki to Mumbai was more irrational and her climbing of steps was too fast. Badki had options available before being prey to an employer and there is no believable reason was given for audience to think for Badki. The ladder climbing of a 10th standard Badki to escorts to international business magnets is simply not explained. They make the audience believe that it is so easy to get into the ladder of escorts. It is a field of competition too. And a transformation to an international escort is not an easy task for a village girl. Moreover, Abhsihekh’s character is a complete let down. No socio – religious intervention and no family hurdles etc. is a dream scenario. The movie behaved like a genius in the first half most of the time and become a brainless child in the second half. Well made characters lost their character in the rush of the story at the end. The movie has a bit to feed the Gang Of Girls sentiments too, discussing what the modern Indian woman really is. In that way, I will appreciate the character Chutky, but not the central character. Rest all characters were weak. The only characters remained in the heavy fall of images was Chutky’s & Vivian’s. Story-Screenplay I will give 30/100. Where Direction will get a 60/100.
The question remains, who put the Daag on the Chunari and I will say the writers did it.
You may go to this movie, if you wish to see good locations, some good music and choreography, some good performance. However, if you are looking for a story, keep your brains at home to enjoy it.
Overall, the movie falls short of expectation. The movie got a good opening and Ladies were the main patrons of this movie. How ever the support is getting less as the shows progress where the movie do not have a message to pass or it fail to pass the intended message.
My rating: 2.75