So when the same film later incorporates jokes about dark skin, writing an entire subplot where a woman is deemed ugly, unwanted and ‘unmarriagable’ because she is dusky, you feel cheated and repelled. With these tropes, Laila reduces itself to a film with no soul or integrity. This is why despite its potential for heartwarming sentimentality, the end result remains a messy potpourri, a tiring, unfunny barrage of gags disguised as a ‘situational comedy.’
In fact, the entire second half is a singular situation—Sonu, now posing as Laila, tackles sexual advances from not one but two lecherous men, while attempting to stay safe.
The plot doesn’t move an inch, and no amount of ribald humour can hide the vacuous storytelling. Vishwak Sen tries a little too hard but fails to make things interesting with his presence.
Laila also comes at an important moment in our pop culture discourse when the entire nation is busy drawing boundaries for what constitutes as ‘decent’ comedy. Risque comedy has always invited a lot of judgment, sometimes unfairly so. But before dismissing the genre in itself, one must realise the brand of humour in itself is not bad. The problem with Laila is how embarrassingly fixated it remains on its double entendres, refusing to offer anything else.
Also, Laila somehow ends up becoming a worse product—a film so misguided about its values, where it thinks its preaching something noble while merely serving a far more regressive idea under the garb of a message.
In one of the most horrendous moment in the film, as an old man discovers his daughter-in-law is dark-skinned, the director intercuts the moment with the ‘Goli Maar’ video, the popular Chiranjeevi tribute to Michael Jackson where the two appeared as zombies. No amount of sweeping climactic resolutions, where a character sermonises that ‘character is more important than beauty,’ can make up for cinematic sins like this.
Laila
Cast: Vishwak Sen, Akanksha Sharma, Abhimanyu Singh, Kamakshi Bhaskarla, Babloo Prithiveeraj
Director: Ram Narayan
