“Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga” – Kapoor Father/Daughter Duo Star In Indian Queer Film

You should consider putting Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga on your ‘upcoming queer movies’ list. Set for a February 1, 2019, release, the film features Sonam Kapoor as a daughter who is hiding a secret from her father, played by her real-life dad Anil Kapoor.

I had no idea Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga was going to be a queer film when the trailer popped up in my YouTube recommendations. I clicked on it because of the stellar cast shown in the thumbnail. The film’s title translates to ‘how I felt when I saw that girl.’ It is a line of a famous Indian song from the film 1942: A Love Story, which starred Anil Kapoor.

Anyway, back to the current movie, do check out the trailer. The subtitles don’t do it justice though. So, consider yourself lucky if you know Urdu.

The upcoming coming-of-age romantic comedy is directed by Shelly Chopra Dhar. The cast includes Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Regina Cassandra, Brijendra Kala, and Madhumalti Kapoor. It has been produced by Vinod Chopra Films and is being distributed by Fox Star Studios.

Being part of the LGBTQ+ community and expressing your identity was made legal in India in September of this year. So, there is still a lot of work to be done for certain members of the straight community to accept such individuals. It was a theme for the webseries Still About Section 377, and now Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga will be playing its part in furthering the conversation.

For those interested, Indian cinema has released a couple of queer-centric titles over the years. The 1998 lesbian drama Fire saw a lot of controversy. I highly recommend you watch it. Juhi Chawla starred in My Brother Nikhil about a gay man and the AIDS crisis. There’s the very problematic Loev on Netflix. Margarita with a Straw, Aligarh, and Kapoor and Sons are also titles you should look into.

Feel free to share your thoughts about Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga with us.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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