Lipstick Under My Burkha
2016 · Movie · 116 min · ★ 6.8 · 88% critics
In a small Indian town, four women quietly push back against restrictive expectations around family, faith, and respectability. As they chase personal freedom, affection, and self-expression, they take risks and keep secrets—testing how far they can go before society pushes back.
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Details
- Years
- 2016
- Release date
- 2017-07-21
- Language
- Hindi
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Critic score
- 88/100
- TMDB rating
- 6.8/10 (106 votes)
About
You’ll likely enjoy this if you want a candid, sometimes funny look at women navigating conservative norms and private desires in a small-town setting, similar to Axone; Not for you if explicit themes, smoking, or uncomfortable relationship dynamics are deal-breakers.
Pros: bold women-centered stories; relatable social pressure; strong performances | Cons: sexual content may unsettle; some plots feel thin; men lack nuance
Themes
- small town
- muslim
- sexuality
- islam
- patriarchy
- social satire
- rural area
- india
- masturbation
Cast & crew
Aahana Kumra
as Leela
Ratna Pathak Shah
as Usha "Rosy" Buaji
Plabita Borthakur
as Rehana Abidi
Konkona Sen Sharma
as Shireen Aslam
Shashank Arora
as Dhruv
Vikrant Massey
as Arshad
Sushant Singh
as Rahim Aslam
Sonal Jha
as Leela's mother
Mayur More
as Michael Jackson
- AS
Akash Sisodia
Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava