Straight walk on wobbly grounds!
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
Love cannot be Found Where It Doesn’t Exist, Nor Can it be
Hidden where It Truly Does. – William Shakespeare.
We
are a country obsessed with Love and its shenanigans, so many careers and
businesses have flourished on the story telling about Love. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisha Laga is one of
those love stories with what they call in the movie containing the element of “
Syappa.” It in a way also elevates the present level of syappa being traditionally
shown in Romantic movies. Two lovers trying to win hearts of the world and
family against them, with a twist of inter-cast love-shove and finally they woe the audience
with a message of undying eternal love between two individuals. This time it is about the Family and world’s real
acceptance of Love regardless of the gender mix.
The movie opens like a typical romantic Bollywood movie with the
fun and frolic of a wedding incomplete without Love sprouting out of first sight.
All the incognito hormones raging and screaming for more of the intimacy with
light touches and brushes of body make a fun mix tadka, with finally a watch full hot-headed brother
with heightened senses of vision, hearing and morality, deciphers the love mystery
and catches the culprit to hold captive with all means possible. So begins
the same old merry-go-round of characters with escapes, chases, rage, tears and
fears on the part of audience. The escapee is Sonal K Ahuja who portrays ( Sweety Chaudhary ) Daughter of (Balbir Chaudhary ) played by Anil Kapoor who
is a forced business tycoon by his mother, nurturing the childhood ambition of
being India’s best chef residing in a small town called Moga in Punjab. Finally,
Sweety in one of her escapes meets (Sahil Mirza) Rajkumar Rao a struggling play
writer in Delhi, son of a famous film producer who is set to create his own niche without
family’s help or involvement. She seeks friendship while he interprets it as a sign
of true love. This is pretty much the first half of the movie. But as the famous
writer once wrote…
The course of True Love never did Run Smooth. – William Shakespeare.
The second half begins the journey of Sahil with help of (Chatro)
played by the ever so talented Juhi Chawla who travel to Moga to win the Love of Sweety and her family. That’s when all the Shenanigans actually begin. The best scenes of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha toh Aisa Laga are
between Balbir and Chatro who is a divorcee. They are the best bits of the film
with marvelous set of comic and romance timing. These are ever lasting actors with brilliance
in their craft, that it is nearly impossible to associate them outside of the
characters they play in the film. The movie
proceeds towards relaying its core civic message about the importance of family
showing empathy and understanding towards a growing child confused by it's own internal mixed messages about the choices and attraction towards the same gender, and to let
them live with the same amount of normalcy and affection as any and every child
deserves. The romance between Sweety and her love interest Kuhu is shown
beautifully without any awkward scene to avoid controversies and backlash. I
particularly enjoyed this bit of love chemistry between two romantically involved
individuals like in any good romantic film. The struggle however, in the movie
is about the comedy which in most cases is average except between Anil Kapoor
and Juhi Chawla. The story telling of the director Shelly Chopra Dhar doesn’t grip
you to the movie, all the while easy predictability can give the boredom that even
comedy fillers may not be able to lift. Overall it’s a good film to watch for
some light time-pass and to watch if one has not yet grasped fully the message
it portrays for the society at large. I end this review with this little quote I like.
Trust your Intuition and be Guided by Love - Charles
Eirsenstein
