I am so excited, FINALLY a full length Ek Ladki Ko Dekha trailer!!!!! And it looks very unusual and very interesting and I am excited.
If I am following all of the carefully non-spoiler and non-protest inducing images, Sonam is the daughter of Anil, her family wants her to get married, and keeps parading men in front of her. Rajkummar is a romantic writer who falls in love with her at first sight and is Muslim. Anil is possibly starting a relationship with Juhi but it looks like he isn’t married so I guess that is just old and embarrassing not wrong?
And then the trailer takes a turn towards the end with Sonam talking about her “truth” and Anil saying he is ashamed and then two women holding hands and sitting together. So, possibly in the middle of all of this marriage push and Rajkummar as the interreligious romance option and Anil and Juhi starting up a middle-aged thing, Sonam is in love with a woman and trying to come out to her family as gay.
Now, for my American readers, this may seem cowardly. Or not, I don’t know. But in America, lesbian romances tend to be more common than male-male romances. Women are more likely to identify as bisexual then men. And so on and so forth, there are whole studies down about this and reams and reams of academic media study articles and blah blah blah.
But, India is not America. In India, one big taboo is acknowledgement of sexual desire on the part of women in any way at all. Lesbianism means acknowledging that women are sexual beings, that they are not just toys that have the sex drive turned on by the marriage ceremony and not before. there are public male gay figures and jokes and so on, but not so much female figures. So if Sonam is gay in this, and if her character is allowed to show a deep loving female-female relationship, that is radical and exciting on multiple levels.
And on the other hand, I really want to see Anil and Juhi in a middle-aged romance so I hope that is part of the plot too. Oh, and Rajkummar being Muslim! This is the actual realization of the question I asked my college roommate, would it be worse if she brought home a Muslim boy or a woman? For her, the answer was Muslim boy. But it looks like this film may swing the other way, say that Sonam’s family would rather she marry outside their community than be with a woman.
And then there is another Simmba song. Which once again seems to promote Ajay over Ranveer. And on the other hand, let’s Sara over-shadow Ranveer.
dontcallitbollywood 
I am SO EXCITED to see this. Apart from the radical storyline it just looks like it could be a really good movie. Yes to Anil & Juhi in older love. I also love the idea of Rajkummar starting out in love with Sonam and then being the first person who sees her for who she is and accepts her and helps her come out to her family. But who will play the girlfriend? That’s a pretty important part.
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Regina Cassandra looks like the girlfriend. Very experienced actress from the Tamil industry, I don’t think I’ve seen her in anything, but her filmography is LONG. And it looks like she has a youngish face, which is what I would want for this role, more a feeling of sweet young love than anything else.
And yes! I love the idea of Rajkummar as the one she first talks to. Now that I think about the trailer in that light, he could end up being her beard by accident, that little bit of a family dinner scene looks like Anil pressuring them to rush an engagement and wedding just because Rajkummar is friendly with her.
On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 11:28 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Regina is a good actress, who like Tapsee, got primarily those limited roles in hero-dominated Telugu movies, but only smaller heroes – however, I recommend watching Awe (2018) produced by Nani and Jyo Achyutananda directed by Srinivas Avasarala.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t get roles with bigger heroes like Allu Arjun/Mahesh. Wish her good luck.
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Oh good, I hope this works out for her. It should be a good launch if only because it will get her noticed and talked about. Much more than if she was just playing the usual love interest.
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Wow, if it’s Regina, she coincidentally played a lesbian in the Telugu film Awe I think.
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Oops just checked, it isn’t Regina but Nithya Menon who is the lesbian.
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Either way, now I am curious to see the movie!
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That episode was hilarious in the movie – only Nithya could make that subtle
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I haven’t seen it, but I want to, definitely.
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Very exciting!
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The idea is exciting, but will Sonam be able to play this role? She ruins even straight heroines, so I’m very dubious.
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Don’t forget Neerja, she was phenomenal in that. So she has it in her, if it is the right part and so on and so forth. And the cast around her looks magnificent, Anil and Rajkummar and Juhi can just sort of carry her along.
On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 11:52 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I really want this movie to work, but Sonam had great cast in Raanjhanaa too (Dhanush, Swara, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Abhay Deol) and they only highlighted her flaws.
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She was also good in Raanjhanaa. One of my fav love stories. Especially since she was acting opposite Dhanush according to his own admission did not understand a single word he was mouthing and made all the corrections during dubbing.
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I’m not interested in Simmba but I’m hoping all the best for Sara. ELKDTAL seems really interesting! Same sex female relationships are something you rarely see in commercial film (including Hollywood despite an increased acceptance of homosexuality in America) so it’s really brave of them to take this chance! Hoping it will be good!
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I’m hoping it will be good too! I am guessing from the cast that it will not be a same sex romance exactly, so much as a coming out drama with the focus spread between Sonam and Rajkumar and Anil.
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Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. I think it’s a good idea for it to be mainly a nice feel good coming out story among other subplots. I’m also getting the impression that maybe Rajkummar’s character writes a play about maybe Sonam’s character’s doomed romance at some point in the movie as well? There’s a shot of two shadowy women being separated and it looks like it’s from a play
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I’m less excited for Simmba but I will probably watch it because I am a Ranveer completist and sat through Gunday. Also, it does look fun and I like cop movies. Extremely excited for Ek Ladki! And this would be a great opportunity to make a female version of the song.
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If you have to be a completist, Ranveer is a good choice. Seeing as he makes, like, one movie every decade (or at least that’s what it sometimes feels like). I’m planning on Simmba probably on Sunday. I’m gonna lie to church (don’t tell them!) and say I am still out of town so I can go to the matinee.
I didn’t even think about the female version of the song! I think I would be okay either way, a female version, or the interesting remixed version we’ve already heard picturized on an actress.
On Fri, Dec 28, 2018 at 7:29 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was thinking about trying to see Simmba in the theater, but the showings in my area are all after 10 pm, which does not work with the jet lag.
I’ wonder if Ek Ladki will be kind of like Crazy Stupid Love with a couple of different love stories in different generations. That would be cool.
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I hope poor Rajkummar gets someone to love in ELKD
On Fri, Dec 28, 2018 at 11:04 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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