Lost Ladies

A film that begins on a train journey in India. Two brides are on the same train. Both have just married, both have their faces covered by a red veil, and both are sitting beside their husbands. Deepak gets off at a station. He takes his wife's hand and helps her down. At home he lifts the veil. She is not his wife. From there the film runs two lines side by side. The strange woman waiting in Deepak's village and the real bride left at the station. Phool stays at the station. She does not know the name of her husband's village, knows nobody, and starts spending time with the people who live there. A woman running a tea stall takes her in. Manju Mai trusts nobody and has clear views on marriage. Jaya is the woman on the other side. The narrative slowly opens why she got off the wrong train, and it turns out not to have been an accident. There is a policeman as well. Inspector Manohar does not take the case seriously, but the further into it he goes the more his view changes. What the narrative is interested in is not the mix-up but choice: the film gives both women, for the first time in their lives, the chance to decide for themselves. The tone is light. The narrative moves as comedy and places its heavy subjects under that tone. Village life is drawn in detail. The veil, the dowry, the training of a bride and a woman's name not even being asked are given as ordinary details. The film was sent as India's Academy Award entry. Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava and Ravi Kishan are in the cast. Kiran Rao directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes warm Indian films with a plain message. Who it is not for: anyone looking for subtlety; the narrative states its idea directly several times and some characters have a single function.