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'Laila' Movie Review: Vishwak Sen's Cringe Comedy Is A Drag Gone Too Far
Almost nothing about Vishwak Sen's 'Laila' seems to have stemmed out of any kind of effort or interest. The result is something beyond any redemption.
Director: Ram Narayan
Writers: Vasudeva Murthy
Cast: Vishwak Sen, Akanksha Sharma, Abhimanyu Singh, Babloo Prithiviraj, Vineet Kumar
Language: Telugu
About 30 minutes into Ram Narayan's Laila, one wonders why the film has still not taken off. Everything in the writing — from the protagonist's famed skills with the makeup brush to his problematic love life — feels turgid and unimaginative. Vishwak Sen struggles through a bunch of silly gags, a couple of lifeless songs, and a romance portion that should have never existed in the first place.
But hope sustains us after all, and we imagine things could pick up after a point because Vishwak Sen has done enough as an actor to inspire some confidence. Unfortunately, the film remains unredeemable all along and, in fact, spirals out of such control after a point that you run out of gasps or expletives. The first 30 minutes, then, seem a blessing in comparison to what follows.
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Nothing, absolutely nothing, about Laila (script credited to Vasudeva Murthy) seems to have stemmed out of any kind of effort or interest. Why does a congenial, crowd-favourite beautician named Sonu Model (Vishwak Sen) decide to cross-dress and disguise as a woman? Turns out that's the only logical way to be in hiding as the bad guys look for him. Why does the film's female lead fall for Sonu without a hint of a reason? Turns out when the guy spots you in public, stalks you and harasses you openly, you are bound to be besotted by him. Why does the film employ a dark-skinned character and use her complexion as a tool for more gags? Well, as it turns out, being appallingly crass and insensitive in the name of an 'old-school' comedy is what the audiences are apparently keen on.
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Men smack their lips every time a woman bends, walks or even breathes; almost every scene in Laila reeks of vulgarity. The problem isn't that the film doesn't cater to a highbrow crowd, but that it doesn't realise that there is no crowd (or shouldn't be, as a matter of fact) for such kind of humour. It isn't that sex comedies can't be appreciated, but when a character unabashedly reaches for a woman's private parts trying to prove that she is, indeed, a man, nothing about it is comedic or even remotely acceptable.
What makes it far worse is that a handful of respectable actors, including Abhimanyu Singh, Babloo Prithiviraj and Vishwak Sen himself, watch the shambolic scenes play out in front of them, even getting paid to participate and propagate.
Indian films about men turning androgynous as part of a tall conceit have rarely aged well, and most of them have been duly called out over time. So, when a similar attempt is made in the year 2025, expectations are that it offers at least a semblance of nuance and justification (even with the perennial excuse of being a mass entertainer). Laila runs far, far from doing any of that and not only does it self-destruct in the most animated ways, but also ends up proving that a trailer of a film is more than enough to judge it at times. Vasudeva Murthy's script tries to then appease us by including a sentimental core involving a deceased mother and a dream that the protagonist must never let go of. But none of this can save Laila because the very core of the writing feels quite insincere and contemptuous; the same dark-skinned character, for instance, is lent the worst possible arc that is beyond explanation.
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Vishwak Sen sleepwalks through the performance and perhaps that is another major drawback of it all. It is convenient to claim that featuring in drag for more than half of a mainstream Telugu film is a bold one. But when the choice is backed by no purpose than to simply raise eyebrows and extract a few crude laughs, it is sure to backfire.
One can't be certain whether Akanksha Sharma, in her Telugu debut, gets the roughest end of the deal because her colleagues in Laila, too, suffer dealing with parts that are both cringe and troubling. She is consistently objectified in the film — not just by other characters but mainly by the camera — and her character is as forgettable as it could get. Abhimanyu Singh, as one of the two villains, remains peevishly in auto-pilot mode while Babloo Prithviraj comes off as though he was never allowed to read the full script. The rest, including the extended cast and technical crew, barely get anything to hold on to. Laila is already looking like one of the biggest misfires of the year.