Ek Ladki Ko Dekhi Toh Aisa Laga concedes the unlikelihood of entertainment to change bigoted minds. When Sweety performs in Sahil’s play, we see disgusted and intolerant audiences get up and leave. Yet I was struck by the image of an old man, sobbing as he leans on the empty bench in front of him, reserved for VIPs who have left. There will be plenty who leave their seats unconvinced, but this film will make some wonder — many of whom may never have considered it. This could have been a bolder and more explicit film, but sometimes cinema should work like a street play. Sometimes we need to preach beyond the choir.

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha… goads the audience to think differently without trying to deviate from its primary purpose, which is to deliver entertainment. It does the latter well enough and yet does not overly dilute its off-kilter vision. No mean feat that.    

Writer-director Shelly Chopra Dhar and co-writer Gazal Dhaliwal (who previously wrote Irrfan’s ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’) manage to spark off some pretty interesting ideas of love. Yes, their film deals with sexuality and seeking acceptance from the older and more-conservative family members, but at the core, ‘ELKDTAL’ talks about love being a universal feeling, one that cannot be shackled by societal norms and diktats. The writing isn’t all top-grade, but this film has its heart in the right place and sometimes that’s all that really matters.

DO NOT MISS ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’. Let’s take this story to the smallest of towns. Let the Sweetys in every village and every town know that they are normal!

Sonam Kapoor and Anil Kapoor, along with writer Gazal Dhaliwal and director Shelly Chopra Dhar, deliver a brilliant lesbian love story that Bollywood should be proud of.

The underrated Abhishek Duhan is impeccable as Sweety’s brother. But the lasting memory from Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga is of Anil taking a scene that could have been maudlin, insufferable and loud, and turning it into a heart-wrenching passage of acceptance, self-realisation and personal growth. Ek Veteran Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga…

Debutant director Shelly Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga is an interesting romance tale with a social message, where love blossoms at a wedding and culminates on the stage of a theatrical performance.

This one may not achieve what 3 Idiots did for parents of engineering students with non-technical passions. But it has the recipe for a light-hearted comedy. Also, it subliminally yet successfully sensitises audiences to the challenges endured by same-sex couples when surrounded by those who refuse to understand or accept them.