Lafangey Parindey

Producers: Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Director: Pradeep Sarkar
Production Design: Eldridge Rodrigues & Madhu Sarkar Kuriakose
Costume Design: Manoshi Nath & Rushi Sharma

I simply loved the dialogue of the film.
To recollect my favourite lines would account for one more blog post.

So getting straight to the costume:

Deepika Padukone – Pinky Palkar
She is portrayed as a girl from a small wadi who works in a hi-end mall and aspires to be a recognized figure skating dancer.

It would perhaps have been easy to show her badly dressed blaming it on her lack of funds. But I am glad the costume department didn’t do that. While she may be limited to her environment, she had all the exposure a young girl in her place would have. References are made to her resemblance to Kareena Kapoor, she is shown watching films in a multiplex, she comes across upper middle class folk in her day-to-day job and she is a figure skater who watches youtube videos to learn.

Her style, therefore, is a culmination of all these elements. As a skate dancer, it would only be logical to show her in athletic clothing, utility combined with comfort. Pinky has mostly been dressed in tops in solid colours, either fitted at the waist with a band or hinting at printed layers underneath.

Special care has also been taken to incorporate embroidery in her clothing, a trait representative of the folklore. They like traditional designs to be embellished on what they wear. Even if Pinky is modern and wears knee-length drawstring shorts, she brings on to them her folk references.

An important practice films nowadays follow is to repeat costume. When characters belong to a lower middle class strata of society, they do not have variety to choose from. They invest in 5 to 6 pairs of clothing, repeatedly worn. This costume of Pinky’s for example, was worn twice in the film, along with others.

Of course, she wears traditional Indian ensembles on festive occasions, like Janmashtami and wadi celebrations. They are well fitted but rather simple. Her choice of colours is bold and striking.

Neil Nitin Mukesh – One-shot Nandu

He is your typical street fighter. Only way too clean and ‘chikna‘. I’m not sure how that could have been helped. The make-up department seemed to have done a good job. What has also become standard attire for ‘taporis‘ is a checked shirt worn as a jacket over a vest (ganji) paired with jeans and a handkerchief tied on the wrist. (Remember Wanted?)

No tapori ensemble is complete without large sunglasses. It’s even better if they resemble Ray Ban’s popular design of aviators.

As for the production design:

It was simply outstanding.

Be it the creation of the fighting rink, the setting up of the wadi, the space where One-shot Nandu practices for fights and Deepika learns to see or the outdoor scenes by the train station, attention was paid to intricate details.

At the same time, none of the production elements took precedence over what was happening in the scene. The frame (mise-en-scene) was built to highlight the ongoing action. And it was pleasing to the eye.

While many may argue that the depiction was not real, at no point really in the film are the exact specifications divulged for us to draw a sketch. We have to draw on our own cultural references when we hear the term ‘wadi’.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and judgement.

I simply have fun taking note of these things and sharing my observations.

- Dhruvi Shah

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