Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastava) and Phool (Nitanshi Goel) are in love. After marrying in Phool’s village, they travel by train to Deepak’s village…or at least they try to. As tradition dictates, Phool is veiled and wearing a red sari. But in their train carriage, there is another just-married couple, and the bride is veiled and wearing a red sari. When the train stops at Deepak’s station, he wakes up and grabs the woman he thinks is Phool. Once they arrive at his village, she pulls back her veil. It isn’t Phool, but Jaya (Pratibha Ranta), who gives her name as Pushpa Rani. Phool, meanwhile, is stuck alone at a train station and does not know the name of her husband’s village. All she can remember is that “It’s the name of a flower.”
Directed by Kiran Rao, Laapataa Ladies is an enjoyable comedy that manages to deal with serious issues in a humorous manner. It satirizes politicians, police and traditional gender roles. It is mostly about women helping each other. There is even a plug for organic farming. There is never any doubt that the film will have a happy ending, but how it will get there is not so obvious.
Jaya, it turns out, is educated and wants to attend university. Her husband, an awful person, is the villain of the story. The other bad guy, the policeman in charge of the case of the lost ladies, Inspector Shyam Manohar (Ravi Kishan), money-grubbing though he may be, does have his soft side.
“Laapataa” in Hindi means “without address.”