Navigating Gender Through Cinema: A Tale of Two Films – Laapataa Ladies and All We Imagine As Light

Laapataa Ladies, directed by Kiran Rao, is a commercial success that blends lighthearted narrative tropes with a powerful undercurrent of gender issues. Rao, known for her earlier work on Dhobi Ghat, has a distinctive voice in Indian cinema, using popular storytelling techniques to explore complex themes like women's autonomy, identity, and societal expectations. In Laapataa Ladies, Rao continues this tradition, but with a more mainstream appeal. The film, set in rural India, follows two women who go missing, using romance, comedy, and melodrama to bring their journey to life. While accessible, it challenges deep-seated gender norms, albeit in a way that ensures mass appeal without alienating audiences unaccustomed to grittier portrayals of women's struggles.

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Kiran Rao’s presence as director is significant in itself. She’s one of the few women in India’s male-dominated film industry who has successfully bridged the gap between commercial and art cinema. Her ability to raise social and feminist issues through a lens palatable to mainstream viewers has garnered her acclaim, with Laapataa Ladies serving as a testament to her skill in making complex themes relatable. The film’s use of familiar storytelling tropes allows broader conversations about patriarchy and gender inequality, making these conversations more accessible to a wide audience, both in India and globally.

On the other end of the cinematic spectrum is All We Imagine As Light, (read our review here) which took home the prestigious Cannes 2024 Grand Prix. Directed by Arun Varma, this film offers a more grounded, realistic depiction of the hardships faced by migrant women, particularly Kerala nurses living in Mumbai. Unlike Laapataa Ladies, this film doesn’t temper its social commentary with humor or romance. Instead, it embraces an art cinema approach, focusing on the raw, unfiltered realities of displacement, exploitation, and the double burden of economic and emotional labor. Arun Varma’s debut at Cannes has been hailed as a striking entry into Indian art cinema, offering an unsparing look at the lives of women often overlooked by mainstream narratives.

Where Rao’s Laapataa Ladies uses the familiar lens of conventional cinema to discuss gender issues, Varma’s All We Imagine As Light pushes boundaries by stripping away cinematic conventions, embracing realism and a more visceral approach. All We Imagine As Light demands an active engagement from its viewers, presenting the struggles of its protagonists with stark realism, which may be too intense for mainstream audiences but resonates deeply within international art cinema circles. This is evident from its Cannes win, which firmly positions Varma as a rising voice in global cinema.

The contrast between these two films has sparked recent controversy regarding India’s submission for the Oscars. Despite All We Imagine As Light’s win at Cannes, Laapataa Ladies was selected as the country’s entry for the Academy Awards. This decision has ignited debates around the criteria for India’s Oscar submissions—whether it should prioritize commercial viability or the artistic integrity showcased in films like All We Imagine As Light. For some, Laapataa Ladies’s ability to blend important social themes with a format more digestible to international audiences makes it a more fitting candidate. However, others argue that All We Imagine As Light’s nuanced, hard-hitting portrayal of women’s lives is more deserving of global recognition, even if it forgoes mainstream appeal.

This Oscar submission controversy raises the larger question of whether India’s film industry still needs to seek validation from Hollywood. For decades, the Oscars have been viewed as the pinnacle of cinematic achievement, but with Indian cinema’s growing influence globally, it’s worth asking whether these Western accolades are still relevant. The success of films like All We Imagine As Light at prestigious international festivals like Cannes highlights that Indian filmmakers no longer need to conform to Western standards of cinema to be celebrated.

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies and Arun Varma’s All We Imagine As Light offer two distinct approaches to the same broader conversation: the lived experiences of women in India. While Laapataa Ladies uses popular storytelling to broaden the conversation about gender issues, All We Imagine As Light serves as a stark, unapologetic examination of migrant women’s struggles. Both approaches are necessary and valid in the ongoing effort to elevate women’s stories in Indian cinema.

In the larger context of Indian cinema’s global standing, the Oscars may no longer be the ultimate barometer of success. Indian filmmakers like Kiran Rao and Arun Varma have proven that they can create groundbreaking work on their own terms, for their own audiences. In an era where Indian cinema can be its own cultural center, perhaps the need for Hollywood’s approval is fading.

Ultimately, the success of both films, despite their differing approaches, speaks to the richness and diversity of Indian cinema today. Laapataa Ladies may win over popular audiences with its charm, while All We Imagine As Light can inspire deeper reflection on women’s labor, migration, and identity. Both films challenge conventional narratives about women, demonstrating cinema’s power to reflect—and reshape—society.