You know something’s awry when a film about two women falling in love leaves you with two crush-worthy male heroes instead. By the end of ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’, the leading ladies are easily set aside and the ones we really want to hug are Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao’s characters.

It’s no surprise that Rao wins over the audience. He has a track record of improving the most gormless films with his performances. But Kapoor! For those of us old enough to remember Kapoor as a 1980s’ hero who thought it was sexy to have three mullets on his person – one on his head and two on his shoulders – in addition to the hair shirt that was his chest, it’s shocking to find yourself noticing how well the actor has aged and rooting for him to get a happy ending.

Seriously though, there’s a lot to applaud in ‘Ek Ladki…’, which is the first Bollywood film to act on #MeToo allegations (co-producer Rajkumar Hirani’s name was dropped from the film’s credits). It’s not the first Hindi film on homosexuality, but director Shelly Chopra Dhar’s decision to treat the story of ‘Ek Ladki…’ as a standard masala romance underscores how normal a lesbian romance is (though the film steers clear of using the L word). Pretty and superficial characters; two people falling in love at a wedding; characters delivering lectures while pretending to have conversations; a tearjerker end – everything about ‘Ek Ladki…’ is formulaic, but for the detail that the star-crossed duo has two women.

If only these good intentions made for a good film.

In its effort to mainstream the lesbian romance, ‘Ek Ladki…’ misses too many marks. Instead of keeping the spotlight on the love story, the film becomes a showcase for the allies, particularly two men. It ends up being a story about two cardboard-cutout women who find their voices because the men come to their rescue. Sonam K Ahuja is a star for playing Sweety and backing this film as her first post-wedding release, but her behind-the-scenes smarts don’t make up for the insipid attempts at acting. Kuhu, played by Regina Cassandra, gets nothing from the script and can’t add depth with her performance. When the film’s one aggressive homophobe – Abhishek Duhan as Sweety’s brother – ends up to be more memorable than the heroines, there’s a problem.

You’d think women writers wouldn’t struggle to write women characters, but no. Recently, a web series titled ‘Four More Shots Please’ premiered on Amazon Prime. It has a female showrunner, a team of women writers and its director, cinematographer and editor are all women. Yet the four female leads of the show have neither charm nor personality. The quartet is made up of a journalist obsessed with her gynaecologist; an overweight woman whose mother is obsessed with getting her married; a bisexual gym trainer obsessed with sex; and a single mother obsessed with her ex-husband. Apparently, if you’re not obsessed, you’re not a woman.

‘Four More Shots Please’ reeks of artifice and a desperation to be a tinny replica of ‘Sex and the City’. Not just that, these women are about as grounded in reality as a floating hot air balloon. Just FYI, if you confuse an opinion piece with reportage as Damini does in this show, the chances of you making it as a journalist – let alone an editor – are slim, no matter how smart those black-rimmed glasses make you look.

Next to neon fluff like ‘Four More Shots Please’, ‘Ek Ladki…’ feels authentic and heartwarming despite its many flaws. Kuhu and Sweety may be cardboard cutouts, but their family and friends feel real thanks to the superb supporting cast. The film uses Bollywood formulae to its advantage and for an audience that has grown up on Bollywood, this strategy works. A ₹3 crore opening doesn’t make it a hit, but for a film about a lesbian couple coming out to a conservative family, that number is entirely respectable.

Maybe what will ultimately push us towards a more open-minded worldview is mediocre Bollywood.

First Published: Feb 02, 2019 23:53 IST