Lipstick Under My Burkha

Lipstick Under My Burkha is a 2017 Indian black comedy film written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and produced by Prakash Jha. The film stars Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur in lead roles, along with Sushant Singh, Vikrant Massey, Shashank Arora, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi and Jagat Singh Solanki in supportive roles. The first trailer was released on 14 October 2016. The film premiered at the Tokyo and Mumbai Film Festivals, where it won the Spirit of Asia Prize and the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality. The film turned out to be both a critical and commercial hit at the box office.

Plot

The story tells the tale of Rosy – the heroine of a (pulp fiction) erotic novel. But Rosy is every woman. She is Rehana, the young college going girl who loves jeans and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. But is forced to sew and wear burkhas that make her invisible to the world. She combats this by stealing makeup and clothes to match her dreams. Rosy is also Leela–a beautician forcefully betrothed by an impoverished and struggling mother who gives vent to her sexual fantasies with a photographer. Rosy is also Shireen, an ace sales woman, who is nothing more than a sex object for her husband. The promise of a lucrative job is weighed against the life of abuse and unwanted pregnancies. Rosy is also Usha Buaji- the aging widow who has all but forgotten her own name. Who is expected to attend Satsangs and play the old matriarch but whose desires lead her to indulge in phone sex with a young swimming coach. The red lipstick that connects them all is the sign of the underlying freedom that every woman seeks. Rehana Abidi seeks the freedom to be who she wants. A struggling beautician (Leela) seeks to escape the claustrophobia of her Bhopal community. A housewife (Shireen Aslam) with three children seeks the alternative life of a saleswoman. A 55-year-old widow, Usha Buaji finds sexual reawakening through a telephone romance with a young swimming coach.
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