Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
*ing: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Juhi Chawla
Rated: 5/10
If there was any homemade, much too cushioned, punchless movie propagating gaydom, it is Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s highly dressed up Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga (ELKDTAL). His ditty here is “Iss pyar ko dil se dekhna dimag sey nahi.” But sad to say, neither dil nor dimag gets justified when the movie hurtles to an end that is incredible but not in the positive way.
You can’t propel an argument against or for lesbianism, or for that matter any issue, by being entirely blindfolded to realities and topping that with dollops of mushiness. ELKDTAL resorts to that and, in the process, the movie and the thought behind it gets entirely undone.
When the film is not grappling with this strange love story playing out in the conservative confines of Moga, it gets interesting every now and then, what with Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla, more than Sonam and Rajkummar Rao, helming the proceedings. The wannabe-chef-turned-garment-king and Sonam’s father, Kapoor is an engaging small town character with all the trappings of babes and bibijis on one side and a volatile son on the other. Sonam is quite a washout and Rao struggles hard to be ever impactful.
Yes, it is a bold subject but one can see how the director keeps chickening out in going full haul on it and centrestages it only in the last few scenes of the film. Keeping it so unfocussed on the central theme pushes the film into a lot many faultlines which engulf it entirely at climax. If not anything, see it for the other pair: Anil and Juhi. Period!