Dhaliwal's 'Right' Story - Ek Ladki ko Dekha toh Aisa Laga

When a close friend made a coming out video about a year ago, I thought, “he shouldn’t do it.” A year before that video, I had asked one of my seniors from school to make a similar video because I was then a part of a storytelling club that was organizing an LGBTQ storytelling event. The thing that had changed in the span of a year is that, I had stopped looking at the LGBTQ as other. If someone doesn’t have to come out about being straight, then why should others? For something to be accepted as normal, we have to believe it to be normal. We do not live in that ideal world in my head and these stories of coming out are important, making the person along with many others accept themselves because oppression doesn’t merely come from outside, it comes from within too.

Why am I talking about this? I am talking about this because I still have a smile on my face as I think about Shelly Chopra Dhar's Ek Ladki ko Dekha toh Aisa Laga. It’s been twenty four hours since I watched the film. When I saw the trailer in December, I knew it was going to be one of the few Hindi films that I see on the big screen. Although the wait had been of less than two months, I had been waiting for this film since four years. Four years? Yes. Four years ago, I saw a video on Youtube – ‘Telling the Right Story’ by the co-writer of the film, Gazal Dhaliwal. I have been following her on Facebook since then. I have perhaps shared her video with anyone who had a conversation about gender with me. I suggest it irrespective of many other TEDx videos on gender because it’s one of the simplest yet impactful video on the subject. 

SPOILER ALERT!

The film starts as any other romantic comedy with a big fat Indian wedding; the hero, Sahil Mirza (Rajkumar Rao) falls in love with the heroine, Sweety (Sonam Kapoor) who inspires him to dig deep into the soul instead of writing a surface-level love story. The writer-hero follows the heroine to her village in Punjab, confesses his love and discovers that she is already in love with another girl. In the second half of the film, the writer-hero plans to write a play about the love story of the girls, which is broadly accepted as a comic play till it’s revealed to be the portrayal of Sweety's reality. Then begins the turmoil of a father (Anil Kapoor) who tries to process the truth about the daughter he loved so much, eventually leading to a happy ending that an entertaining film can provide.

The way I look at the film, our hypocrisy of being open is taken to a peak before the interval. After the interval, the same hypocrisy is dismantled as we laugh at the usual confusion of Punjabi names. A few take-aways from the film are:

1. The title track, 'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga', playing in fragments. I really like the song, and the way it unveils kept me waiting and wanting for more. There's something really soothing about it, which the lovers of the original song with the same title might disagree with.
2. Comedy: at the right place and time, and not at the expense of gender identity.
3. The glass prison: this prop that is used in the play is so apt to demonstrate the kind of prison that people are living in, an almost invisible prison. 
4.  The film ends with father’s acceptance of his daughter’s sexuality, but also, with brother’s ‘shame’ at the same.
5. The role of the hero in writing the story of the heroine: It’s usually a matter of debate about who’s allowed to tell the story about oppression. I’d say anyone who has the privilege; anyone who’s aware that she or he is just a voice that CAN reach a larger audience; anyone who’s aware that she or he is a catalyst to the story that needs to be told.
6. The characters are so well written that I could think of all the people from my life who have uttered the same dialogues, preached the same ignorance.
7. The one scene of ragging in school, the moment that establishes ‘this isn’t normal’ gave me goosebumps even though I have seen rape as a cure to being lesbian in other films.
8. Balbir Singh's love for cooking. Had I seen such a film that challenges gender roles even in a humorous way without stigmatizing it, I’d have grown up to become a woman who doesn’t melt at the thought of men cooking. 

As I mentioned earlier, I had been waiting for a film like Ek Ladki ko Dekh toh Aisa Laga, a film that’s neither Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) nor Tarun Mansukhani’s Dostana (2008); a film in the grey area and yet not Shakun Batra's Kapoor and Sons (2016). I’d have loved to see more of Sweety-Kuhu romance on screen. Most of the times, it seemed that Sweety’s character could have been stronger, but the non-aggressive, non-rebellious approach also made it seem so real (someone we already see instead of someone we want to see). It is a family film that can stir comfort zones; it is a film that 'safely' brings homosexuality in the mainstream Bollywood without activism or comedy at the expense of identity with #LetLoveBe. This is exactly what Gazal Dhaliwal had set out to do. I had been waiting and here I am, still smiling, and thinking, ‘she did it, she actually did it!’

Source: Arre

For example, a romantic comedy about two girls who meet during the Bhangra dance step practice of a big fat Indian wedding or a story of a huge crazy family coming together after years to celebrate a child’s new birthday when the child went through a sex change surgery or maybe the story of a cop solving a murder mystery along with his super hot constable cum boyfriend. Stories which entertain, which don’t preach, which don’t scream activism and yet they don’t derive humour at the expense of somebody’s identity. They show a glimpse into the lives of these people who may seem different from the outside but are actually like anybody else. Now will it be easy for me to make such a film in Bollywood, write such a film in Bollywood? Probably not until some of my scripts have become hundred crore movies. But I plan to stay at it. Because honestly, that is the only way I know to make a difference. To tell stories. ('Telling the Right Story', Dhaliwal)

I’d recommend watching Ek Ladki ko Dekha toh Aisa Laga with family simply because you can. If you’re like me who likes to be left alone during and after the film, then definitely go alone. I'd suggest watching 'Telling the Right Story' on Youtube first, to understand why I am so excited about it. It's somebody's dream coming true, people. How can I not be excited!?

Here's hoping for a world that doesn't need 'coming out'. In case you haven't figured out yet, it's not a film review, just a fan-girl moment.