Laapataa Ladies: Unveiling hidden narratives

Two couples travelling on the same train, one bride (Jaya) out of them runs away with the husband (Deepak) of the other who she deems less assertive than her own newly-wed husband. The purpose of doing so is because she wants to escape the traditional role and burden of domestic life so she can educate and make something out of herself, professionally. The original wife (Phool) of Deepak is meanwhile lost at the train station. She seeks refuge with a woman who sells fritters at the station and lives independently while waiting for her husband Deepak to find her.

Household women fostering mutual empowerment: Importance of relational roles

In the text “Decentering hegemonic gender theory”, Namneka places importance on kinship, she elucidates how without recognizing the relational roles, western feminists jump to faulty conclusions that are discrepant from the actual nuances that exist in the roles and empowerment of these women outside west. This relates to one of the overall takeaways from the movie; community playing an important role in the upliftment of these women. A particular scene from the movie that resonates with this is when Jaya begins to befriend the women of the household she has landed in. Yashoda who is the mother of Deepak, when inspired by Jaya, offers to “become friends” with her own mother-in-law.  (Referencing film scene: 1:21:50 – 1:22:35) This scene, in my opinion, holds a lot of power as it reflects on the importance of familial and communal roles helping women in achieving small levels of empowerment, be it within the domestic sphere.

In the similar context, when jaya arrives at the scene where Deepak’s mother is cooking, she praises the taste and the mother is taken by surprise for being appreciated. She then goes on to say that this used to be her favorite vegetable but since the men of her house do not like it, she has stopped cooking them. Jaya responds by saying “You should make it for yourself”. The mother laughs it off while saying that she does not even remember her own likings and disliking ever since marriage. (Referencing Film scene: 1:20:43 – 1:21:30) Jaya plays a pivotal role in these scenes and in the movie overall of a woman promoting some form of empowerment for her fellow womenfolk.

Women internalizing ‘feminine virtues’: De Beauvoir’s assessment

The behavior and reactions of the women of the household to Jaya are a testament to the analysis that they have heavily internalized and limited themselves to housework. Independence in any form is not something they even fathom. Another related interesting scene is where Manju Maai, the woman who is sheltering phool, gives phool some cash in helping her prepare food for her stall. When accepting this money, Phool hesitates but eventually when she accepts it, the scene depicts her entranced and mesmeric reaction. (Referencing film scene:1:28:34 – 1:29:02 ) This reflects on how the socialization of the girl is entirely embodying her fitting into a submissive, passive role. Consequently, when exposed to the opposite narrative, self-determination comes off as something novel and new to her.

Overall, something that is common between the scenes of Phool and Manju mai, and Jaya and other women is that in each setting, one of them is enabling and teaching others to build their capacity, self- advocacy and strengthening of the other in general. Manju Mai especially, teaches Phool in very direct words to become more resilient. (Refencing film scene: 1:18:40 – 1:19:40). In this scene she verbally mentions that us women are perhaps being conditioned by the society to take a backstep because the rest of them are fearful of what women can do if they realize that they are not bound by these stereotypes.

Another angle that relates to the “genders being socially constructed, and individuals being conditioned” theory of de Beauvoir can be understood in the reaction of Deepak’s friends to his situation. Unlike the majority of men, Deepak waits and strives to find Phool instead of leaving her to fend for herself. After a few days of searching, his friends start suggesting him to forget Phool since she has likely been abducted and might even have found someone else. As all of them are drunk in this scene, Deepak reacts violently whereas the rest of his friends start defending by saying that they were only joking (Referencing film scene:1:22:57 – 1:24:54). This corresponds to when Simone De Beauvoir explains how a little boy is taught to use his body as a means for dominating nature. Deepak is being instigated to uptake this dominance whereas a female, Phool in this case, traditionally has been taught to renounce her autonomy.