KIRAN RAO SLOW STORIES IN A FAST WORLD

After the triumph of her sophomore directorial Laapataa Ladies, Rao shines a light on Bollywood's woes and offers a constructive path for the way ahead.

- BY RAJEEV MASAND

During her 16-year marriage to Aamir Khan, which ended in 2021, Kiran Rao wrote and directed Dhobi Ghat (2011) and produced another half-dozen or so films. But nothing announced her arrival as a formidable filmmaking voice quite like Laapataa Ladies, which released last year to unanimous and unprecedented praise.

Like its creator, Laapataa Ladies hides a strong, unmistakably astute core beneath its seemingly simple and mild-mannered exterior. This charming movie about two young, newlywed women who get accidentally swapped during a train ride to their new husbands' homes became an instant critics' darling. Once it dropped on Netflix post its theatrical run, Laapataa Ladies found even more love and went on to become last year's most adored Hindi film. Rao, who had stayed in the shadows too long, was finally having her moment in the sun.