Ananth Mahadevan: Mix-up in train and station straight from my film

A still from Laapataa Ladies

It's said that there are seven plots in the world, from which countless stories are born. Many stories share the same genesis then. But Ananth Mahadevan is surprised to see the striking similarities between Laapataa Ladies, and his first feature film, Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol (1999). "It seems too much of a coincidence," he laughs.

Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao

Kiran Rao's acclaimed film revolves around two new brides who are mistakenly swapped in a train owing to their veiled faces. Mahadevan says his film - starring Joy Sengupta, Vishal Varma, Neha Pendse, and Sucheta Khanna - has the same plot point. "I have seen Laapataa Ladies, and the beginning as well as many incidents are the same. In our film, a boy from the city goes to his village to get married. The mix-up happens at the railway station when he asks his new bride, who is in a ghunghat, to wait on a bench [while he goes looking for some information]. When he returns, he joins the wrong bride." The story then follows the two women as they correct the mix-up, only to realise that they have feelings for the other's partner. So, the four characters annul their original marriage, swap their partners again, and get married.

Ananth Mahadevan; (right) Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol premièred on DD Metro in 1999

It's evident that Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol and Laapataa Ladies tell different stories. With the Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava and Ravi Kishan-starrer, Rao weaves a tale of women empowerment. But Mahadevan points out another aspect. He says, "The scene where the cop looks at the woman's photograph and can't make out much because she is in a ghunghat, is there in my film. Except in my film, it's not a cop but another character."

Laapata Ladies director Rao with writer Biplab Goswami

He is also puzzled that Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol, which was available on YouTube until a few months ago, is no longer on the video-streaming app. "I don't have any proof if Laapataa Ladies' writer has seen my film on YouTube. When I searched for my movie on YouTube, it had disappeared and that's when I realised that it was pulled down. I didn't reach out to Aamir [Khan, producer] or Kiran because they will only point out the differences. But the premise, situations and a lot of scenes are similar. The mix-up in the train and railway station, and the ghunghatwala photo are straight from my film. I'll treat it as flattery more than anything else," he laughs.

Laapataa Ladies' story is written by Biplab Goswami, with Sneha Desai credited for screenplay and dialogues, and Divyanidhi Sharma for additional dialogues. Goswami tells mid-day that he had submitted the script at the Cinestaan India's Storytellers Contest in 2018. "I received the first runner-up award for it. I wrote the synopsis a decade ago. My story, script, dialogues, characterisation and scenes are all 100 per cent original. I have not been inspired by any story, movie or novel. I have not watched Ananth Mahadevan ji's movie. I was also recently asked if it's inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali novel, Noukadubi. A 60-year-old producer called me much before the film's release to tell me that a similar episode happened with his mother when she was a bride. I studied about gender discrimination, inequality in villages and male chauvinism when I was a student at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata. I won't copy somebody else's story as we are taught the basic ethics and moralities of writing." mid-day also reached out to Rao, who didn't respond till press time.