Lipstick Under My Burkha had its fair share of controversy thanks to Pahlaj Nihlani, the then Censor Board Chairperson, denied to certify the film for reasons: “The story is lady oriented, their fantasy about life. There are continuous sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused.” and proved the point of the film long before its release that our society fears women who have an opinion.
This is a story about four women, all four of them in different stages of their life, facing different problems, the common ground being their rebel against the stereotypes imposed on them. They share the same residence ‘Hawa Mahal’ which is an ironic name for their suffocating lives. ‘Burkha’ in the film’s title is symbolic to the veil over feminine dreams. Writer-Director Alankrita Shrivastava takes enough time to build all the four characters to make us relate to them and feel along with them.
Ratna Pathak Shah plays Usha Parmar, commonly known as ‘Buaji’, a senior landlady who likes to read sex-novels on the sly and falls for a young swimming instructor, Jaspal (Jagat Singh Solanki), the first person in a long time who chooses to call her by her name instead of ‘Buaji’. She is exceptional in the role and in this particular scene where she takes a while to recall her name when she’s enquired about it from the young man.
Konkona Sen Sharma plays Shireen Aslam, a housewife with three children. She works as a saleswoman who is often awarded for being the best at her job yet she does this job secretly from her chauvinist Saudi-returned husband (Sushant Singh) who isn’t interested in listening or talking to her and only considers her as a sex object, who feels no remorse in impregnating his wife again and again, giving her an acute case of uterus infection. Konkona Sen Sharma is brilliant as always, conveying her silenced screams without uttering a word.
Plabita Borthakur debuts with this film as Rehana Abidi, who’s recently got into college and has Miley Cyrus as her singing idol. She’s been oppressed since childhood resulting into her being too naive and prone to disaster. Despite family restrictions, Rehana drinks, smokes, wears sexy clothes and even has a boyfriend in Dhruv (Shashank Arora). Her orthodox parents wants her to stay in a Burkha. As a rebellion, she uses the same Burkha to shoplift from expensive stores in the malls. She’s splendid in the scenes where she expresses her resentment through her eyes.
Aahana Kumra plays Leela, a beautician who loves sex and is facing a dilemma to run away with her photographer boyfriend (a terrific Vikrant Massey) or get settled with her fiancé (Vaibhav Tatwawdi) when both of them aren’t worthy enough. Aahana performs her confused small-town girl part extremely well but her track felt weak compared to the other stories.
The film tries to break a lot of taboos without being offensive. There are many scenes which we don’t see in our films like waxing of body hair or an older woman touching herself while having phone sex. Even Leela’s Mother (Sonal Jha) is shown to have a profession that we haven’t seen in Hindi films. The best part about this film is that it succeeds in making statements without being preachy or melodramatic and does it with ample amount of dark humor. This is a film where a man says lines like: “Suhaagraat tak wait karein?” The dialogues are bold and compliment the mood of the film.
But it isn’t a perfect film. While it has very strong, real and relatable female characters, every man in the film is one-dimensional. There are issues with the editing as well as some scenes start very abruptly, the screenplay not integrated enough. It might have been an issue with censorship but it should’ve been looked into before the release. The music could’ve been better. And while the multiple stories were given time to evolve in the first half, post-interval the stories felt forced to come together and the climax reminds you of Priyadarshan or Anees Bazmee comedies where all the characters magically come together at one place.
In spite of these issues, there is a lot to admire in the film. Lipstick Under My Burkha is amusing, supremely acted and a well-intended film with scenes which will stay with you for a long time. It acts as a mirror to our regressive society and is a must watch especially for the men.
Rating:
3.5/5
CineMumbles 