{"id":694,"date":"2008-03-18T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-18T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2008\/03\/review-laaga-chunari-mein-daag-2.html"},"modified":"2011-06-14T02:58:17","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T02:58:17","slug":"review-laaga-chunari-mein-daag-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2008\/03\/review-laaga-chunari-mein-daag-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Review : Laaga chunari mein daag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rating<\/strong><\/a> : Below average (2.75\/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hours 20 minutes
Director : Pradeep Sarkar
Cast : Anupam Kher, Rani Mukherjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Abhishek Bacchhan, Jaya Bachhan, Kunal Kapoor
<\/strong>Kid rating<\/strong><\/a> : G
<\/strong><\/p>\n

LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG : Ghisa-pita melodrama !<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was a film I\u2019d rather looked forward to in 2007, after viewing the trailers, and the zesty clip of \u201cHum to aise hai bhaiyya\u201d. However the bad reviews came in and I never got around to seeing it. Now that I have, I\u2019ll tell you that this is an unremarkable film, so much so that I\u2019m reviewing this a couple of months after seeing it. This film belongs in the 80s in spirit, and while it does glimmer with the sheen of tasteful wardrobe changes, and heavy, well-designed, artificial jewelery, it\u2019s just decade old stuff packaged nicely.<\/p>\n

Technically, and by that I mean \u2013 direction and screenplay, this is a decent film. What mires it down bigtime are the clich\u00e9s. There is the old, ailing, impractical father (Kher), hanging onto his huge haveli (which is mired in a court-case) and decrepit views on family honor and the role of women. There is also the melancholy mother (Jaya Bachhan), her brow furrowed by financial worry, and the perceived burden of two unmarried daughters. The daughters themselves \u2013 Badki (Mukherjee) and Chutki (Konkona) are spirited enough, and striving to be \u201cworthy\u201d daughters.<\/p>\n

Of course Ma\u2019s sewing isn\u2019t going to fill the family coffers. So with mouths to feed and a haveli to maintain and fight for, and Dad frothing at the mouth about not having a son, the elder daughter decides to go to Bombay to find work. However in desperation and with penury looming, she becomes a prostitute. Filthy lucre is in, poverty out. But hai<\/em>, that honor !<\/p>\n

This film has good intentions and a social message of sorts. The re-integration of so-called \u201cfallen\u201d women is what it deals with. But instead of liberally dosing the script with common sense, this film is a clear case of S.O.S \u2013 Stupidity On Screen. The characters are colored in with bold strokes of black and white \u2013 there are no greys here. And unfortunately all the \u201cgood\u201d people are either blind or stupid (probably the latter). The director seems to want it all \u2013 the peppy rythms of a well-choreographed dance number and the innocence of a rural belle set upon by mean, hungry, corporate wolves !<\/p>\n

Rani does well enough in this pathetic, I-can-see-it-coming role. Konkona, the fine actress that she is, gives it her all. Dependable Kher is good too. As for Jaya Bachhan, she does a \u201cNirupa Roy\u201d, but Ms. Roy was so much better. Mrs. Bachhan appears to be getting crochety with age; even her smiling countenance appears a grimace. I\u2019m now so over sobbing, selfless, helpless filmi Moms.<\/p>\n

There is no saving grace in this film, folks. Kunal Kapoor comes close, but no cigar. Abhishek is OK; a dance number featuring the four young \u2018uns is the highlight of the film. The film grinds on about the clich\u00e9d, impoverished family hanging on to the last vestiges of honor, of maintaining a fa\u00e7ade of respectability, and punishing it\u2019s women. Haven\u2019t we seen it all before ? It\u2019s basically the stuff you loathed in the 80s come to bite you in the 2000s. It fits like a square peg in a round hole.<\/p>\n

Curiosity killed the cat. What I know now is that predictability killed the film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rating : Below average (2.75\/5)Genre : DramaYear : 2007Running time : 2 hours 20 minutesDirector : Pradeep SarkarCast : Anupam Kher, Rani Mukherjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Abhishek Bacchhan, Jaya Bachhan, Kunal KapoorKid rating : G LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG : … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":"","facebook_10233691416821117_190635594420624":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51,62,76,14,17,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-51","category-62","category-bollywood","category-drama","category-rating-g","category-watchable"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":3,"uagb_excerpt":"Rating : Below average (2.75\/5)Genre : DramaYear : 2007Running time : 2 hours 20 minutesDirector : Pradeep SarkarCast : Anupam Kher, Rani Mukherjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Abhishek Bacchhan, Jaya Bachhan, Kunal KapoorKid rating : G LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG : … Continue reading →","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45CAb-bc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2141,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/2141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}