Two brides in identical veils get on the same train. One gets off at the wrong station. Her husband does not notice until the train has left. Laapataa Ladies begins with this premise and does something quietly radical with it — it treats the mix-up not as farce but as opportunity, following both women as they navigate a world that has spent their entire lives telling them to stay put and be patient and wait for the right man to come and collect them.
Kiran Rao, returning to direction after over a decade, makes the film look effortless, which means it is not. The tone — gently comic, genuinely warm, occasionally rueful — is held with extraordinary consistency across the entire film. It is the kind of tonal control that makes you forget it is a craft achievement.
Nitanshi Goel, as Phool — the bride who ends up stranded — is a discovery. She is playing a character who has been told her whole life that she is too simple to manage on her own, and watching her realise, incrementally, that she is not, is the film's central pleasure. Pratibha Ranta, as the other bride, plays a different kind of intelligence — guarded, strategic, aware — and is equally fine.
Ravi Kishan, as the local constable, delivers a comic performance of such precision and warmth that he threatens to walk away with the film. He does not. The women do not let him. That, too, is the point.
The best Hindi film of 2024. Possibly the most important one.