Leela (2002 film)

Plot

Leela is a professor from Bombay. Married to a popular poet, her life has always been prefixed with the title 'Nashaad's wife'. She wins a chance to be sent as a visiting professor to California, where she rediscovers herself, the woman she is, beyond the duties of a wife that she had always devoted her life to. Kris comes as a bright sunshine in her life, who makes her realise her own desires, the desires of the body. Is it going to be an happily ever after fairy tale? Or another Bollywood melodrama?

Cast

Music

1. "Champai Dhoop Ke Saye" - Shubha Mudgal
2. "Dhuan Uttha Hai" - Jagjit Singh
3. "Jaag Ke Kaati Raina" - Jagjit Singh
4. "Jabse Kareeb Ho Ke Chale" - Jagjit Singh
5. "Jabse Kareeb Ho Ke Chale v2" - Jagjit Singh
6. "Kanha Teri Bansuri" - Falguni Pathak, Dev Choudhury, Karsan Sagathia, Kay Kay
7. "Mavan Te Dhiyan" - Jaspinder Narula
8. "Tere Khayal Ki" - Jagjit Singh

Production

The film was shot mostly in Los Angeles with funding from Kavita Munjal and Somnath Sen. This is the directorial debut of Somnath Sen. "It's a universal story that many women will be able to relate to," remarked Dimple Kapadia, on the sets.

Critical reception

Anil. S. Arora, of Chowk, wrote that film could be considered "the first art film made on the Indian community in north America". He added that the film was about the taboo that sex still is to the Indian Community and their "inability to accept them as the basis for family relationships". He though was dissatisfied with the way Leela is portrayed as a faithful wife to a straying husband, which he wrote is quite outdated for a Mumbai woman who dwells on sexual equality.

The review in The Hindu was moderate, which mainly lauded Dimple Kapadia's acting, declared that the plot has many loose ends andsigned off with a note that it is not a bad choice to watch "at the end of a long, lonely day".

The Daily Telegraph declared it as a flop in its positive review on Shantanu Moitra.

Recognition and awards