Middle-class morality

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Posted: 18 years ago

< content=06/28/2007 name=date>

Yashraj's Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag shows Rani Mukherji as a middle-class girl who turns to prostitution. Now, they're worried that this may not go down well with the omnipotent middle-class audiences

Back to Section Stories Posted On Thursday, June 28, 2007


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Mumbai Mirror Bureau

Rani and Konkona in Lagaa...

If sources are to believed, thinking heads at Yashraj Films are facing 'a moral question'. Aditya Chopra and director Pradeep Sarkar are hesitant about Rani Mukerji's portrayal of a sex worker in Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag. Going by the plot, Rani hails from a respectable middle-class family living in a small town. City life lures her and eventually, falling on bad times, she turns to flesh trade for a living. The makers feel that Rani's journey, from a middle-class woman to a sex worker (in the film), may not go down well with the audiences. In fact, a middle-class woman being portrayed as a sex-worker has always been a strict no-no.

Also, recent box-office letdowns (read Tara Rum Pum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom) has prompted Aditya to mull over the script yet again before the film makes its way to the editing table. Says our source from the production house, "We don't know how kindly the viewers are going to take the fact that a woman from a middle-class family becomes a sex worker in times of crisis. Surely, we are giving it a thought. After the Jhoom Barabar Jhoom debacle we want to play it safe."

Although a good measure of mother-daughter relationship has been thrown in but that doesn't solve the problem. The plot essentially focuses on Rani's predicament in a big bad city. Adds another source, "The basic premise highlights Rani's plight after she leaves her home town in hope of a better life."

The creative team behind the film already have had a few meetings. Says a crewmember on condition of anonymity, "Yashraj films are always meant for family viewing. We don't want to outrage our viewers' sensibilities. Saying so, we can't have any last minute changes as the film has been mostly shot. We intend to release the film in September."

Incidentally Rani Mukerji plays a sex worker in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya too. So, there is also that question of repetition, which Yashraj Films is not too happy about.