Fridays are traditionally film release days in India. This Friday, judges of the Supreme Court of India along with their spouses and officers of the registry settled down for a film that has not stopped drawing laughter and appreciation wherever it has travelled to. Laapataa Ladies was screened in the Supreme Court auditorium after which director Kiran Rao and its producer Aamir Khan interacted with those present. The occasion, according to the SC registrar, was the 75th year of the establishment of the court and the film was an ode to gender equality. Many paths of inquiry open up here just like they did in the film which weaves together parallel stories of two young brides who lose their way (and husbands) in a train and end up finding their core selves, all in a happy ending.
The film, small budget and small in scale, has touched hearts with its seemingly simple story, new faces and lilting music. Beneath the languid movement on the screen, the film packs a punch which lands superbly — about women learning to hold their own, different kinds of women in rural areas, the need for women’s education, and so on. Laapataa Ladies, a non-Bollywood film for the most part, drives home its feminism gently. And shows the power of good storytelling on socially significant issues. That the SC decided to screen it is a surprise but the film’s message presumably landed well with the esteemed set. Gender equality is still sorely missing in its honourable gallery of judges but, within its hallowed portals, women of India have mostly been heard except on occasions when a former Chief Justice of India was accused of sexual harassment by a court staffer. Yet, it was hopefully a Friday afternoon well spent for the bench.
