Lipstick Under My Burkha review: The film that India needs to watch!

Movie: Lipstick Under My Burkha

Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak, Plabita Borthakur, Ratna Pathak Shah, Vikrant Massey, Sushant Singh

Director: Alankrita Srivastava

Producer: Prakash Jha

Words aren’t enough to express how pleased we are to be finally seeing the poster of Lipstick Under My Burkha under the Now Showing sections of every theatre. After endearing unimaginable predicaments, it is HERE!

Before you go book any movie ticket in advance, here’s what we think about the flick (Spoiler Alert: It’s totally WORTH IT!)

Lipstick Under My Burkha is a combination of four simultaneously occuring narratives, A saleswoman (Konkona Sen Sharma), a young aspiring rock star with a family business (Plabita Borthakur) a buaji (Ratna Pathak-Shah) and a beautician (Aahana Kumra). These ladies have one thing (one desire, rather) in common: To break away from their mundane lives and get themselves a little slice of freedom that they all have been dreaming of.

Each of these characters has their own situations to deal with back home, Konkona, for instance, is in what she thinks is a marriage devoid of love. Plabita’s character is that of a college girl who is toiling away at her family owned business of burka tailoring but has aspirations to be a rock star.

Buaji a.k.a Ratna Pathak Shah is head-over-heels over a beefy lifeguard at a local swimming pool, and that’s where her inhibitions go flying out of the window. She indulges in Phone Sex (Or Audio Pornography, as per the Victorian era moral police Pahlaj Nihalani)  gets as hot as a pressure cooker and doesn’t get enough of skimming through her novel titled “Lipstick Dreams”. Last but not the least, the Aahana Kumra’s beautician is into a torrid affair with someone outside her relationship.

What you’re bound to notice is how all the characters are having issues that are way different from one another, but all of them are what each and every woman is actually facing in real life. The whole film also displays the universal nature of the problems.

We were afraid that some parts will come across as caricature performances, but much to our delightful surprise, those have turned out to be the best parts of the film. However, the fact that there has been no kind of gender balance attempted by the male characters of the film didn’t go down well.

Also, a BIG Thumbs Up goes to the fact that all the characters of the quartet have been given their due respect since each and every one of them has a different and an inspiring story to tell.

Overall, it is such a delight to see someone indulge in a plethora of political correctness in a women-centric film (A genre invented by the Scissorhands at the CBFC) and rather display women as beings with desire and ambition, just the way they are.

This film is one of those that I can watch again, and again and again!

Kudos for team Lipstick Under My Burkha!