A delicate tale, beautifully told
After a long and absurd battle with the censor board, Lipstick Under My Burkha is finally out.
With all the hue and cry, we went in expecting a film that was all about sex. This one isn’t.
Lipstick Under My Burkha is an evocative tale of four women who dream of independence, careers, of moving to a big city and enjoying life. Their desires must, for the most part, remain hidden from society and this makes their dreams adventures in themselves.
Alankrita Srivastava chooses a subtle narrative style; her small-town Bhopal is authentic and relatable, as are her characters.
Shireen (Konkona Sen Sharma) is a housewife who works as a salesgirl but has to hide her job from her husband (Sushant Singh). Usha (Ratna Pathak) is a 55-year-old who enjoys reading erotica but hides it in religious books.
Leela (Aahana Kumra) feels suffocated in the small town and begins to use her sexuality to manipulate the men in her life. Rihanna (Plabita Borthakur) is a young girl who has to change from a burkha to jeans and a T-shirt on her way to college every day, and dreams of becoming a pop star like Miley Cyrus. The small town setting enables the four characters to meet and become part of each others’ lives.
Lipstick Under My Burkha is no didactic sermon on how women should be treated. It is instead a subdued conversationstarter.
Srivastava has put together an army of wonderful actors; this is one of those rare movies in which it is difficult to pick a favourite.
It is laughable — and tragically ironic — that the nation’s film certification board wanted to clamp down on a movie that talks about how women ought to be free to nurture their own desires.
Watch it, and you’ll agree.