India has already won! This is the first thought that came to my mind when I heard that Kiran Rao’s Missing Ladies has been selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars 2025. Who would have thought that this rural, simple story about bride swapping would become such a big hit? Such a traditional story, which takes a dig at patriarchy and makes way for big, bold women, has beaten several high-profile, big-budget films to make it to where it is today.
Let’s face it, beating films like Animal, Kalki 2989 AD (which have a really great star cast) is no easy task in Bollywood. The celebration is doubled because Missing Ladies has beaten the highly controversial Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal, which was labelled as misogynistic and cruel for its problematic portrayal of women. So, for that reason alone, this mention really matters!
Missing Ladies was released without any buzz, without any A-listers and no Gen-Z or youth-centric saga, but it still found its audience. That in itself tells a lot about the power of cinema – maybe on odd days!
Now, why do I think Lapata Ladies is a ‘revolution’?, Because it’s only once in a generation that a movie leaves such a big impact on you. Remember the kind of movie that leaves you with a thought in your mind after watching it? Where you replay the entire movie in your mind and look for answers. And sometimes, when we don’t get our answers, we go straight to Google and type- “missing ladies ending”.
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There are visually impressive and compelling films that stay with you and force you to question your reality and the environment around you. Me myself, a 23-year-old guy who loves and respects my mother and sisters, Missing Ladies was an eye-opener for me and it helped me understand how deep-rooted the problems related to women still are in our society. We are just 100 days away from entering 2025 and it seems like our society hasn’t progressed at all. Even though we have progressed a little bit, we are still full of vulnerabilities, lack of opportunities for women, their financial independence, aspirations, self-discovery and much more.
Many years ago, I remember reading a column by Pooja Kaushik titled, “Aakhir kahan jaati hai aapko saath padhe waali ladkiyan? (Where do the girls who study with you go?)
It touched my heart and made me look back and realise that the women I grew up with were actually lost along the way and are nowhere to be found. Missing Ladies is a similar story where the dreams of many women struggling with oppressive responsibilities die a natural death and no one even hears their cries.
In the film, Pratibha Ranta’s character manages to survive and repeat her voice, but this is probably very unlikely to happen on the ground. Indian cinema audiences should thank Kiran Rao for bringing this story to the big screen because the world should hear stories that no one wants to tell (because it won’t get them box office collections).
Another reason why I called Lapata Ladies a revolution is that Ever since the film industry has started focusing only on commercialization, such stories have become less and less. Especially after the drop in business after the pandemic, taking the risk, or maybe I should say showing courage to present such a story was a move that deserves praise.
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Kudos to Aamir Khan and the entire production people for believing in the determination of Phool and the taste of Sub-Inspector Shyam Manohar. Just when people thought Missing Ladies would rise to the level of being labelled as the maximum critically acclaimed film, it also turned out to be commercially successful despite its small budget. Imagine what success it would have achieved when no one believed in it!
I also called Lapata Ladies a revolution because It redefined feminism for Indian audiences. It is sad but the movement for equality has been very misunderstood in cinema. Some people think that women doing what they want is feminism and other sections believe that breaking stereotypes will be considered the only feminist act. Here, Missing Ladies took the centre stage and answered all inquisitive minds without even mentioning the word.
The story subtly hints that Jaya’s ambition to study and make it big was as important as Phool’s longing for her husband and home. Both acts allowed women to choose what they want to do and what’s best for them and that’s the new definition of feminism for you. It’s not always about equality or drumming up one gender as superior to the other, it’s always- if a man is free from judgement in doing or allowing a particular thing to be done, then women should also be free from such apprehensions.
Don’t forget that our society needs pure souls like Phool and Jaya as much as it needs Manju Maai (played by Chaaya Kadam). Women who couldn’t see a bright future for themselves but are a ‘girls’ girl’ in their own way. They truly proved that not all harsh words are meant to hurt you, but some are meant to make you better.
I called Lapata Ladies a revolution because The film takes a dig at society and sets certain limits around women. Kiran Rao’s return to the director’s chair after 14 years couldn’t have been better as no one could have told this story better than her.
A moment of appreciation is also due to Biplab Goswami, as he was the brain behind writing the original story, which was developed for the film by Sneha Desai and Divyanidhi Sharma – two amazing women who realised the need of the hour and ensured they left no stone unturned in crafting it beautifully.
Whether or not Missing Ladies gets a nomination, India has already won. The kind of films it beat in the race to become the country’s official entry to the 97th Academy Awards is worth watching. I am sure that in the years to come, Missing Ladies will stand as a testimony to the feminist movement in Indian cinema and people of our age will drink tea with pride that we were part of making history.
My best wishes to the entire team of Missing Ladies and Kiran Rao, you should make more movies (the wait was really worth it though).
But don’t forget, be it Phool or Jaya, we should remember that ‘she is a woman, she can do anything’.
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