The movie received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of the lead actresses and the film's bold and thought-provoking themes.
What makes Lipstick Under My Burkha revolutionary is its focus on the granular, everyday nature of female resistance. The film’s protagonists do not burn their bras or lead street protests; instead, they reclaim their pleasures in secret, hidden corners. Usha/Buaji, the film’s most poignant character, lives a double life. By day, she is a conservative landlady; by night, she becomes “Rosie,” a woman who lusts after a younger swimming coach, reads erotic pulp fiction (the film’s brilliant narrative device), and dares to dream of a second youth. Her act of rebellion is buying a lipstick, hiding it under her pillow, and daring to feel desire at an age when society deems her invisible. Leela’s rebellion is a secret relationship with a photographer, while Rehana’s is a series of anonymous, sexually charged phone calls with a stranger. These are not grand political gestures, but they are deeply political acts. They assert the fundamental right to a private, desiring self—a self that patriarchy systematically erases.
In the landscape of contemporary Indian cinema, where formulaic blockbusters often dominate the box office, certain films emerge not merely as entertainment but as cultural disruptors. Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) is a landmark example. Initially stalled by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for being “too lady-oriented” and containing “sexual scenes,” the film’s journey from censorship to a cult classic is itself a testament to its core theme: the fierce, quiet rebellion of women seeking agency over their bodies, desires, and identities within a patriarchal society. The film is not a radical manifesto; rather, it is an intimate, unflinching, and often humorous portrait of four women in small-town India who use small acts of transgression—a hidden lipstick, a stolen romance, a risqué phone call—to chip away at the suffocating burkhas of social convention. lipstick under the burkha movie
An ambitious beautician who dreams of escaping her small-town life to start a business with her lover, even while her family pushes her into an arranged marriage.
The film's title, "Lipstick Under the Burkha," refers to the idea that women in conservative societies often hide their true selves and desires under the guise of traditional attire. The movie received generally positive reviews from critics,
The intense controversy surrounding the film’s release inadvertently proved its point. The CBFC’s initial objection—that the film was “lady-oriented” and contained “sexual scenes”—exposed the deep-seated discomfort with female autonomy. The board, made up largely of men, found the film’s depiction of women owning their desires to be “provocative” and “uncomfortable.” This was a classic case of the patriarchal burkha being wielded not by religious clerics but by state machinery. The subsequent public outcry and the film’s eventual release (with an ‘A’ certificate) turned it into a cause célèbre. The censorship battle highlighted a crucial irony: while Indian society could tolerate violence and misogyny in popular cinema, it could not bear the sight of a middle-aged widow buying a lipstick or a housewife craving intimacy. The film’s struggle for release became a real-life echo of its characters’ struggles for existence.
The 2016 film Lipstick Under My Burkha , directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, is a groundbreaking piece of "lady-oriented" cinema that explores the secret lives and stifled desires of four women in Bhopal, India. Wikipedia +1 Core Themes and Characters The film uses the "lipstick" and "burkha" as powerful metaphors: the lipstick represents the colorful, hidden dreams and sexual desires of women, while the burkha symbolizes the patriarchal and societal veils that restrict them. ResearchGate +1 Usha "Buaji" (Ratna Pathak Shah): A 55-year-old widow who rediscovers her sexuality through erotic novels and a phone romance with a young swimming coach. Shireen (Konkona Sen Sharma): A mother of three who secretly works as a successful saleswoman to find independence from her oppressive and sexually dominating husband. Leela (Aahana Kumra): An ambitious beautician trying to escape the claustrophobia of her small town and an unwanted arranged marriage to be with her lover. Rehana (Plabita Borthakur): A college freshman from a conservative family who uses her burkha to hide her "western" interests, such as wearing jeans and aspiring to be a pop singer like Miley Cyrus. Public Seminar +4 Controversy and Censorship The film gained international attention when the Usha/Buaji, the film’s most poignant character, lives a
The movie follows the lives of:
The title’s central metaphor is deliberately provocative. The “burkha” is not merely the physical garment worn by the young college-going heroine, Leela, to escape her family’s surveillance; it represents the myriad forms of invisible cloaking imposed on women across generations, religions, and classes. For the 55-year-old Usha (or “Buaji”), the burkha is the expectation of asexual widowhood—a life where her only permissible joys are mundane household chores and religious piety. For the ambitious beautician, Shireen Aslam, the burkha is the communal and financial pressure to conform within her Muslim household, stifling her entrepreneurial dreams. For the student, Leela, it is the hypocrisy of a modern family that grants her freedom to study but polices her every move and relationship. And for the middle-class housewife, Rehana Abidi, it is the prison of a sexually sterile marriage and the relentless drudgery of motherhood. The film argues that the most oppressive burkha is not made of cloth but of societal expectation, internalized shame, and the fear of “log kya kahenge” (what will people say).
Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) is a critically acclaimed Indian Hindi-language black comedy directed by and produced by Prakash Jha . Set in the crowded lanes of Bhopal, the film follows the secret lives and inner desires of four women who are navigating the constraints of a patriarchal society . Plot Summary
The film’s most audacious achievement is its unapologetic depiction of female pleasure from a female perspective. In mainstream Bollywood, women are often objects of the male gaze—ornaments in songs or prizes for heroes. Shrivastava reverses this. The camera lingers on the women’s faces, their anxieties, their boredom, and their explosive moments of self-discovery. The sex scenes are not titillating; they are awkward, fumbling, realistic, and sometimes unglamorous. When Rehana masturbates with a showerhead, the act is not framed as perverse but as a desperate, almost tragic grasp for a moment of autonomy. When Leela experiences her first orgasm, it is a revelation. The film dares to ask: What does female desire look like when it is not performed for male approval? The answer is messy, complicated, and profoundly human. By centering the female gaze, the film dismantles the idea that women’s sexuality is a threat to social order, revealing instead that the real threat is the system that forbids its expression.