Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Movie Review: More Siyaapa, Less Substance

[caption id="attachment_707276" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] Director Shelly Chopra Dhar has brought a new-age love story to the theaters, this weekend, with her debut film Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga and while the Sonam Kapoor-Rajkummar Rao-Anil Kapoor starrer created a lot of buzz with its trailer as it talks about lesbian love, the film falls a bit short of expectations. [caption id="attachment_707275" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] [caption id="attachment_707277" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] The story revolves around Sweety, a girl from Moga, Punjab who stumbles upon a playwright Sahil in Delhi while trying to hide from her brother. It's love at first sight for Sahil, who drops everything and zooms off to Moga to woo his lady love. Sweety's family believes that she is having an affair with Sahil and resist her relationship with a Muslim boy. However, as we saw in the trailer, Sweety is in love with someone else. What happens when Sweety’s family and Sahil come to know about her ‘siyaape wali’ love story forms the rest of the plot.It’s a fresh concept and a brave effort and the fact, that the film doesn’t mock same-sex relationships is very progressive. The film shows lesbians as they are i.e normal human beings. ELKDTAL deals with the subject very sensitively and for that it needs to be applauded. While there’s a lot of exposure and awareness about the LGBTQ rights in metros, in small towns homosexual kids don’t find acceptance and therefore, they isolate themselves and this has been beautifully portrayed in the movie.Here’s hoping that after watching the film people will realize that homosexuality is not a disease and that all love is equal. [caption id="attachment_707278" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] The movie has its heart at the right place but the writing is so simple that it gets boring. Had the makers not revealed that it’s a lesbian love story in the trailer, it would have had that shock value but now, it’s very predictable. What’s the point of keeping Sonam’s sexual orientation a secret till the first half, when you have already revealed everything in the trailer? The whole purpose of doing that seems lost. Yes, we agree that there’s siyaapa in the film but everything happens so easily that it fails to make an impact. Not once does the story make the audiences wonder what will happen next and that’s disappointing. Second half is dragged and fails to engage. Sonam Kapoor is playing Sweety and while she is good initially, when the character are getting established, her performance in the emotional scenes is very weak. Her character is vulnerable but also very headstrong as she knows what she wants and is ready to fight for it. Rajkummar Rao has played Sahil Mirza and while he is a fabulous actor, the story and his character is so lackluster that he fails to impress. Anil Kapoor is playing Sweety’s dad Balbir Chaudhary and it’s a delight to watch him on screen. It’s his first film with Sonam but except for the climax scene, the father-daughter jodi fails to make an impression. [caption id="attachment_714538" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] Juhi Chawla is looking as fresh as a daisy and is perfect as the boisterous Chatro. Her chemistry with Anil Kapoor is on fire and is the highlight of this film. Regina Cassandra has played Sonam’s love interest and though she doesn’t have much screen space, she has a strong screen presence. The child artistes, who have played younger Sweety, are terrific and have acted better than Sonam. In fact, the supporting cast is very good. Shelly Chopra Dhar’s movie is easy breezy, has a novel concept but the execution is meh and it fails to touch your heart. There was something amiss and it seemed a bit shallow. Dialogues are natural, screenplay could have been crisper, writing seems a bit lazy, cinematography is okay and I so wish they would have left Ek Ladki Ko Dekha song alone but the damage has been done. [caption id="attachment_714539" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Still[/caption] The film may appeal to people in the metros but I doubt it will have any takers in small towns however, if this film can change the mind set of even one person, it would be a victory in itself.