Lipstick Under My Burkha

Movie Review (Hindi)

Lipstick under my Burkha is a film that you take away with you after the screen time is over. Every person watching it will find it relate able. Lets take the four central characters of the movie, each representing a phase of a woman’s life.

A woman in her late 40s/ early 50s – She has been widowed for long and misses a man in her life. But dare she express her desires publicly?? No, no, no, that would be blasphemy! She is old and ought to visit satsangs. So when she wants to learn swimming she needs to shop for a swimsuit very surreptitiously and when she finds her coach handsome and desirable, she flirts with him over the phone assuming a different character.

A woman in her 30s – She is married with three small kids. Her husband has returned from the middle east and has no job now but he does have an extra marital relationship. All he wants from his wife is sex. He hardly looks at her as a thinking individual. She is a brilliant sales woman and wants to better herself at work but is told by her husband not to try to be a husband.

A woman in her 20s – She is pretty and works in a parlour. She has dreams of making it big in the business of marriage photography along with her lover. She has no qualms of having a relationship. However, her mother who is a single parent, is struggling for a livelihood and wants her daughter to get married into a decent family.

A teenager studying in the first year in college – She, in fact, gives the film its literal name as she roams around in a burkha, shoplifting from branded stores, flinging her burkha away before she reaches college, melting into the crowd of young people. She is pretty, sings well and loves to dance and dress up. At home, however, she stitches Burkhas at the family shop and lives an alternate life after her parents retire for the night.

It is funny, but if the women were to be replaced by men, there would be no story to tell!!

I rest my case!

Each actor did justice to her/his role. What a casting coup!

Alankrita Shrivastava and Prakash Jha, Thank you for making movies meaningful.

A Death in the Gunj

Movie Review (English and Bangla)

When I first came to learn that Konkona Sen Sharma was directing a movie, I instinctively knew that the movie would be different. I guess that thought came from the fact that she is Aparna Sen's daughter, and so a thinking director. What also pleasantly surprised me was the Satyajit Ray influence in the movie. There is a smooth subtlety that leaves you a little breathless because the characters have hit closer to home.

This movie is once again proof of the fact that the story is the king and the characters are the ones that bring in the magic to that story. It does not matter who the actor is. 

The Ambassador, the surrounding forest and the tribals with their music were characters that have added that special touch to Ray's movies and did the same here. From the opening scene, it was evident that there was something ominous waiting to happen and that grips the audience right from the start.

My heart goes out to the countless Shutus of every family who are fighting losing battles every day, and today this battles grows more intense and the consequences are equally disastrous. In the movie, the actors seemed to be born for the part played and therein lies the director's touch.

Thank you Konkona! Here's to many more such stories from you.