'Missing Ladies': Veiled Patriarchy

Another bride struggles to find a way to escape so that she is not forced to go to the groom's house. Within the story of these two different struggles, the value of women. A list of scenes of how they are bound in the name of tradition and culture. In the

film, one can find how the effect of deep inequality is hidden within the daily behavior and nature of women. Without beatings, violence, profanity and exaggerated emotional scenes, the pain of women has been expressed as if the movie is tasting bitter medicine like sweet, patriarchal society. Jaya, who has reached someone else's house by mistake, does not try to go back to her husband's house by faking her name and address. Why does Jaya confuse everyone by resorting to lies? Phulkumari, who was waiting for her husband, found her husband or not? Around a similar question "Missing Ladies" runs.

Directed by Kiran Rao, this movie has satirized in a different style. It is trying to give a powerful meaning within a simple story but without spoiling the spirit of the story and characters. No scene is built to convey a message, but if it does, every scene speaks something. 'Missing Ladies' does not feature a missing woman. The missing feature is shown. A battle is shown, where the search takes place – for missing existence, rights and voice. In the

film, the small discriminatory actions that society has been adopting for years are shown to have become so normalized that the characters have stopped finding fault with them. At the very beginning of the movie, the family of the newly wedded bridegroom is showing a lot of dowry. The understanding of people who do not get dowry only when the bridegroom is disabled is clear in the movie. Many examples of gender discrimination such as not being able to remove the veil in front of others, not being able to pronounce even the husband's name, not being able to cook one's favorite dishes, not being able to go out to work, not being able to further education, not even being able to visit one's own family for fear of infamy are found throughout the movie.

Many events and situations that occur in the story shown during the year 2001 have tightened the film in such a way that uncertainty remains among the audience until they see it. An entrenched discriminatory mindset leads to a wave of compulsive situations, which look ridiculous on the surface but are thought-provoking on a deeper level. After the disappearance of his wife, when he goes to file a report with the police, Deepak, Phulkumari's husband, is asked by the police for his wife's photo. Deepak says that he has only one photo of himself with his wife and shows the same photo. In which the flower girl's face is covered by a veil. The innocent bride shown in the

film does not even know the destination of her train journey. After parting ways with her husband on the train, Phulkumari starts spending the day at the railway station. When asked about her husband's whereabouts, she remembers only that the name of her village matches the name of a flower. Throughout the film, Choto, who works at the station, tries to find out the whereabouts of Phool Kumari by telling the names of many flowers. In the end, Phulkumari has transformed herself from an innocent to a mature Phulkumari until she finds out that the village's name is Surajmukhi. In the last scene of the film, Phulkumari's veil falls. She catches the fallen veil, stops but does not put it on her head. This brings the film to a symbolic conclusion, the life of Phulkumaris has changed. Another female character in the

film is Manju Mai. Manju Mai, who is living a struggling life by selling tea at the railway station, not only helps to find the whereabouts of the missing flower girl, but also helps to change the direction of her life. Even though she speaks softly, Manju Mai's every word seems to come out of the furnace of rebellion.

Phulkumari, who is a guardian of the patriarchy as taught by the society, Jaya, who is rebelling and trying to move forward, and Manju Mai, who fights the patriarchy and enjoys her freedom. The whole story of the 'missing ladies' revolves around this three-tiered story. 'Lapata Ladies' is slated to hit theaters on March 1, 2024. Since its release on the online platform Netflix on April 26, the film has been garnering attention and trending in many countries including India.

(trainee)