Sunday, October 22, 2006

The movie 'Lajja'

Today I watched the film 'Lajja', released in 2001 - directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi, with a top of the line star cast that boasts of Madhuri Dixit, Rekha, Manisha Koirala, Mahima Chaudhuri, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Ajay Devgan. And as if that was not enough, there are two 'item numbers' by Urmila Matondkar and Sonali Bendre.

The plot was interesting enough to get me to watch the movie - a story that narrates the tale of four different women as seen and experienced by one of them. And despite its melodrama, obvious cliches and a lot hamming, the movie made an impact. The central protagonist, or the sutradhar, is Vaidehi (Manisha Koirala). She is the wife of a NRI tycoon - who feels lost in his materialistic world that she finds debase and unfulfilling.


Vaedehi's attempt to escape from this shallow world and preserve her integrity in the process, takes her on a journey - a journey which brings her face to face with some stark, brutal reality. Through her eyes, we witness lives that remind us of the grim situation that continues to exist in India even today. Lives that are representative of the greatest ironies of Indian society - where the female form is worshipped as goddesses on one hand and defiled through practices of dowry, infanticide and rape on the other hand.
The story weaves in an out of the lives of the four protagonists --

Vaidehi, the wife of a selfish, egotistical man. She's being hunted by him and is on the run. A flight the takes off falteringly, but ends with her soaring to reach out for the purposeful-ness she is searching for.

Mythili, the college-educated demure middle-class girl who displays spunk in revolting against the back-breaking dowry demands and the constant humiliation suffered by her father at the hands of her future in laws.

Janaki, the bold and independent small town stage actress who is unabashed about her pre-marital pregnant status - and rises up against the hypocritical standards of proprietary that society imposes solely upon women.

Ramdulaari, the progressive, backward-caste mid-wife living in a small village somewhere in northern India who challenges the oppressive ways of the upper-caste local politician - plodding relentlessly to uplift the dismal status of the women folk.

As the story progresses, we find ourselves, like Vaidehi, drawn into the plight of these women, and are left stunned, disgusted and shamed. Overly-dramatic they maybe, but the tales being played out are real stories of real women in contemporary India. And not too different from Vaidehi, we are left in awe of the way these women choose to stand up and face their grim situation bravely and courageously.

Amongst the performances, Madhuri Dixit steals the show. She sizzles as the brassy nautanki-actress who lives life on her own terms. The entire 'Ramayan' sequence that conveys what is essentially the crux of the movie, is sterling. It draws an analogy between the life of Sita and these women, questions the double standards that exist in the entire Agni Pariksha episode and goes a step further to state that Ram's victory over Ravana would have been futile had it not been for Sita's will to keep Ravan's overtures at bay. Madhuri competently emotes the myriad emotions of heartbreak, disbelief, agony and rage that the character, Janaki, goes through during the course of the stage play - as backstage, she is confronted with the reality of her own life that is coming apart.

The other female leads are adequate and do justice to the roles they are called to enact. The chilling gang-rape scene is chilling and portrayed sensitively, managing to do what it is meant to do - make one cringe.

The male actors complement the female characters and do not attempt to hog the screen. They are presented to us in varying shades of morality - the self-indulgent,arrogant husband (Jackie Shroff); the good-hearted small time thief played by Anil Kapoor. The larger than life, super-heroic Robin Hood-ish Bulla (Ajay Devgan),a character which feels a tad out of place in this tale that is principally intended to be 'feminist' in tone.

The movie by no means is perfect or brilliant. It never really achieves to question our own conscience in the manner Rajkumar Santoshi's earlier film Damini did. Neither does it match the complex moral terrain Damini dragged us into. The situations and characters are either white or black - lacking the subtlety that blurs the line between right and wrong in real-life situations. The only too human mental conflict that a Rishi Kapoor's character (in Damini) goes through is missing, rendering the situations unrealistic and the characters that are reduced to being caricatures - and our own involvement in the movie fleeting, being held only as long as the movie lasts.

Despite all of this, I found Lajja engrossing - absorbing enough to make me write about it. Its a gripping narrative of a subject which is beaten-to-death. Most importantly, it argues the case of resting the task of a woman's emancipation on the woman herself - being bold enough to state that had Sita refused to concede to the Agni Pariksha (and in the modern day, if women in similar situations, reject traditions, customs that only humiliate their selves), things might be different.

And, Madhuri Dixit definitely made the film worth the watch.

Labels: