Hindi cinema has been quite successful at unraveling the overarching meaning of love. Love is an emotion that transcends boundaries of the temporal life and resides in eternity. While this definition may seem arbitrary, Shelley Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Asia Laga tweaks it with utter ease.
Set in the cozy locales of Punjab and Delhi, the film has all the elements of so-called normalcy. A girl named Sweety is extremely passionate about life, but is shown to be running away from something. Something that holds dear to her heart. While the world around her is unaware of her personal turmoil, relationships with her are conceived, with and without consent. Sahil, who helps Sweety escape the groping shackles of her brother Babloo, who is aware of her dear secret, develops affection towards her. Little do they know, that they are about to change the social dynamic in their own little way.
All this starts from the drunk show that Sahil puts up where Sweety, angered with forced matchmaking by her family, breaks into tears, as she divulges her soft corner for Kuku – a girl and an unexpected acquaintance, for whom she has endured mockery and embarrassment. The beauty of this disclosure is, that it brews in the form of diary scribbles and transcends to a gentle talk at a Gurudwara, thereby almost sanctifying Sweety’s orientation. The fact that she hardly overdoes her emotions, makes it seem almost organic.
Sahil’s friendship is cathartic for her. The director illicitly, yet magically, captures the essence of Sweety’s tussle between rationale and feelings through the concise, yet deep, encounters of herself and Sahil. On one hand, she is the stereotypical, thoughtful daughter who puts her conservative family first, while on the other, she does not intend to sacrifice her happiness under social pressure.
However, as hard as this revelation is, the family accepts her shortly after the ‘shock’. The very charade of the play at the end punctures the idea of family, where the freedom of being oneself is prohibited, the bond between Sweety and her father surpasses the common father-daughter equation, as selflessness stands paramount. With a predictable plot like this, Dhar brushes off the notion of shame attached to homosexuality. The very natural reaction of a daughter hiding something from her father translates into trust and honest commitment. This stands as a contrast to the futile stance of ‘normalcy’ many of us like to cover ourselves with, even though it sometimes kills our truest self.
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga inspects every instance in life, right from childhood, and its influence to inject honesty in an era of masquerades. The fact that humans often go too far creating clear distinctions in personalities jeopardizes the existence of humanity. Therefore, such aspect treads beyond social acceptability. Hence, the film comes off as a fresh breeze, one of its kind, as traces of same-sex intimacy have also been observed in Kapoor and Sons (2016) and Heroine (2012) but not in as great depth.
Visceral performances by particularly Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, and Anil Kapoor render a lasting impression and are groundbreaking in their own ways. Lastly, the subtle background score and musical snippets, including a popular melody of the 90s, fuel the ‘feel’ in this ‘love story’ while ‘letting love be’ at the same time.