Women oriented films have been a hard nut to crack and have taken the toll of many biggies of the tinsel town. Last year veteran filmmaker J.P Dutta chartered this unconventional path with his overambitious costume drama 'Umraon Jaan' and it ended up as one of his all-time disaster. This time Bollywood's most illustrious banner Yash Raj tries to experiment with this unreliable concept by having its favorite actress (Rani Mukherjee) in the driving seat. During the past few decades there have been countless films where the lead female protagonist has been portrayed as playing "sacrificial lamb" for the betterment of her loved ones.
'Parineeta' proves a blessing for its debutante Vidya Balan but this film proves to be a big miscalculation for its director, producers and actors. It takes lots of steam, enthusiasm and passion out of script writers in churning out the relevant structure of such melodramatic sagas. It requires taut screenplay, etched out characters, relevant scripting and above all bankable music to give it a thriving start at the box office. Unfortunately, all these factors are missing and the film turns out to be a "thanda" affair at its opening for its mediocre music and predictable script.
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Rani Mukherjee gives her booming career the desired niche as she delves into author-backed character of an urbane sex worker. Rani's caricature of "Natasha" takes its relevance and substance from Neha Dhupia's bold avatar in 'Julie' but the blaze of proving herself justified is completely missing. It's all because of faulty scripting and spineless characterizations that the film falls flat before it could stand. One can really not challenge the versatility of actors like Rani Mukherjee, Konkona Sen or Jaya Bachchan or even the technical finesse of Pradeep Sarkar. However, there is something completely amiss from their potential work.
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Badki alias Vibha (Rani Mukherjee) and Chutki alias Shubhi (Konkona Sen) enjoy a carefree life in Banares. They enjoy playing pranks by being affectionate daughters to their parents (Jaya Bachchan and Anupam Kher). The family is severely jolted by financial pressure and property disputes by their near ones (Tinnu Anand and Sushant Singh). Their lives take a pleasant turn when some Mumbai based filmmaker (Rana Jung Bahadur) along with his associate Sophie (Tarana Raaja) plans to shoot at their place. They even sneak off to view "mujra" of famous "tawaif" (Hema Malini) to have more meat in their film.
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The property disputes take ugly turn and it results into hospitalization of Badki's father. Financial matters grow worse when Chutki's education suffers. Badki feels dejected when her father wishes her to be born as son and plans to find her future in Mumbai. She barges into Sophie's house and finds a friend in her next door neighbor - Karan (Ninad Kamat). Badki fights out for her living and finally gets snubbed by rich CEO (Harsh Chhaya) for being placed in his office. It was the beginning for her in this urbane jungle where sexual favors are offered and served to make life happier. Badki gets solace from Karan and her girlfriend (Suchitra Pillai) to fight her way out. Badki decides to morph into the skin of "Natasha", a high profile call girl, by disguising herself as event management executive. Now, she makes moves to find her ways out and helps her family out of dire straits.
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Rohan (Abhishek Bachchan) gets into her life and so does some glimmer of hope and love. Chutki gets herself placed in Mumbai's top most advertising agency where she confronts her group leader Vivan (Kunal Kappor). Love sparkles between them and the stage is set for their matrimonial bliss. Badki finds the enchantment of love with Rohan but refuses to accept it as she believes it's not her destiny. She fights the menace of being a sex worker and is blackmailed by her ruffian cousin (Sushant Singh) so that her dark shadow doesn't fall on Chutki or her family. One fateful day, her dual life is revealed to Chutki. Destiny takes another turn when Badki alias Natasha's dark identity proves an obstacle for her family's happiness. 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' ends on a very cold note where all tumultuous happenings come to a standstill in a rather unconventional "cold" way.
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The film starts off progressively with its most animated track "Hum to Aise" and one could expect better communion between characters. The first 15 minutes give it desired curiosity zing that one expects from hi-profile flick but thereafter the film charters into old-fashioned melodramatic touches. Realistic but dark concepts like family feuds, financial pressures and the perception of urbane jungle getting over the sanctity of a modest family, delivers heavy dosages of dull phases in theatres. The pessimistic treatment of the film might not be digestible to average viewer as they expect fireworks out of conventional Yash Raj family drama.
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It's indeed a noble idea in getting into soul and skin of modern societal realities but it's not feasible to neglect its entertainment quotient. Secondly, the characterizations are loosely fictionalized and the dents grow deeper in the second half. Rani Mukherjee's bold avatar sounds too impulsive and lacks the ire of vengeance. Abhishek-Rani love chemistry is poorly hatched and there are hardly any tender moments of affable on-screen chemistry. The song "Zaara Gungunalein Chalo" is one of the most underperformed songs that they have worked on.
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Abhishek Bachchan is merely reduced to a side-kick with hardly meat and substance in his short-lived character in the film. It's the last few reels where he is subjected to one marriage song and a couple of emotional scenes but the rest of the film completely belongs to Rani Mukherjee. The same can be discussed about Konkona-Kunal Kapoor chemistry that proves too fragile in the second half. The discussion about the "perfect woman" sounds absurd and so does its implication in building chemistry between this pair. Scripting and dialogues (Rekha Nigam) sound too ordinary and lack the hilarious tinge in both the chemistries. Producer-cum-writer Aditya Chopra fails miserably in delivering the needful for this Abhishek-Rani starrer after giving a gem of script and concept in 'Bunty Aur Babli'. Cinematography (Sushil Rajpal) is of the highest standard and it brings out the magnificence of Europe in a couple of numbers.
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Shantanu Moitra's music is the one of the weakest link of the film and probably his most underperformed works till date. Soundtracks like "Hum to Aise Hain" holds significance and promise while the rest disappoint completely. This is where the film has failed to build the desired hype and will be opening to lukewarm responses at the box office.
Pradeep Sarkar has failed to rejuvenate the charm of 'Parineeta' in almost every department and delivers a mediocre flick. 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag' will be adding more worries in the Yash Raj camp as it has already suffered colossal disasters in 'Jhoom Barabar Jhoom' and 'Ta Ra Rum Pum' this year.
