Lewis Carroll

Vakratunda Mahakay

Laxman Utekar

Lalbaugchi Rani

Veena Jamkar

Ganesh Matkari

The premise can be easily summarized in a single line. The protagonist on a sort of journey meets different (often peculiar) characters, ultimately changing him or herself, while causing a reciprocal change in others.The format is simple and, while not being very common, is not unfamiliar altogether. In fact, we can find many examples of work using this idea right — from Alice in Wonderland (thenovel and subsequent films) to Jagte Raho (1956). Even the recent Marathi film,, was a variation of this, which replaced the central character with the Ganpati idol.In’s Lalbaugchi Rani, we meet Sandhya (Veena) a bright innocent girl with a reduced mental capacity, lost on the streets of Mumbai, where she encounters different character types.The format has been used successfully but is not very easy to handle. One of the central problems is the probability of the film turning episodic making the story seem insubstantial. You do get to use a lot of good actors, but in bit roles they may or may not make the impact. You need a strong protagonist the audience can identify with, and a lot of the film’s impact will depend on that.is not consistent in its entirety but manages a reasonably strong feel good experience, without shying away from the darker aspects of the theme.Sandhya is also known as Lalbaugchi Rani. Why? Probably because it seems like a good title for the film. She is a protected child, isolated and unprepared to deal with the real world. Due to some issues with her behaviour, she has discontinued school and doesn’t even go out to play with other kids. Her parents (Ashok, Pratima) take good care of her, but when she is stuck in a small room in a Mumbai chawl 24 X 7, ‘good care’ becomes a relative term. On her 24th birthday, they take her out to celebrate, one thing leads to another and she is lost. The film revolves around what happens over the next 18 hours or so.The pre-intermission portion of the film is largely episodic, and has a limited impact. The audience really needs to suspend disbelief to get to the intermission point. For example, the ‘getting lost’ part itself is not very convincing. Or how a childlike girl can outsmart two policemen with their own vehicle on an empty road is not entirely clear. The people she meets in this part, an aspiring actor (Prathmesh) and a beggar (Parth) are predictable and repetitive., who plays the lead, and is an otherwise very reliable actress, gives such an over-the-top performance here that one starts to lose hope. We have all seen the performance of special child Gauri Gadgil in Mahesh Limaye’s Yellow and in comparison the portrayal here seems impossibly loud and unrealistic.And yet, the film starts recovering in the second half. Instead of chance encounters with random people, the second half feels like a logically conceived storyline. It moves in the darker areas while still managing to keep our interest and sympathy. Some may feel that the climax is a bit too convenient, but some films just need happy endings.One of the major positives of Lalbaugchi Rani is the camera work (Lawrence D’Cunha) and the onlocation outdoor work. The director, Laxman Utekar, is an ace cinematographer himself, and though he hasn’t handled the camera here like he did in his debut feature Tapal, he nevertheless has an eye for images. Without being flashy in an obvious sort of way, Lalbaugchi Rani visually renders the life in Mumbai like few recent Marathi films have managed to do. And that’s one major reason to see the film, in spite of its fair share of problems.