Writers: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi
Director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat
Visually splendid, anchored by the colour red, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi’s Lali opens with a vibrant Indian wedding that not everyone is glad is happening leading to plenty of blackly comic outcomes that establish the tone of the film from its first frames as a dressed horse poops on the floor just as wedding guests are emerging from their carriage and a stuck revolver leads to an unexpected shooting. As Lali evolves it looks at curses, possession, supernatural beings and the all too human clashes of family and community, but heads for a conclusion that feels too poorly seeded within the narrative.
Having lost two previous fiancés Zeba is cursed and everyone knows it, unable to support her marriage to Sajawal. When accidents occur at the wedding, the neighbourhood feel vindicated in their fear of her as further tragedy follows soon afterwards. Away from the watchful eyes of others, the young couple move tentatively towards an understanding, but is Zeba really the one to fear?
For 80% of its running time, Lali is a beautifully paced story, a slow-burn exploration of two shy people who find commonality in their feeling of exclusion from their neighbourhood and their families; Zeba because of the bad omen she supposedly represents and Sajawal because of the red scar that covers one side of his upper face. Their marriage also opens up questions of family responsibility, the pressures of being the son and heir as well as the difficulties of entering a new home as a daughter-in-law who needs to please – and there are some lovely scenes between Zeba and her new mother-in-law who advises her how to dress and the performance she must affect as a new bride.
In its final chapter, Lali loses its way with more overt horror tropes as the withdrawn Sajawal becomes possessively obsessed with his wife, trying to push back all the onlookers that have surrounded and interrupted them since the wedding. It creates a dramatic ending if perhaps an unpredictable one as the colour red fed through the film finds a purpose. However, the concept of this final chapter feels like a leap, Sajawal’s trauma emerging too drastically and too quickly without warning, losing the subtly that existed earlier in the film. Although, the about-turn on who and what to fear is pleasing.
Mamya Shajaffar as Zeba is the audience’s way into the story, her quiet acceptance of both her reputation and the loneliness she thinks she deserves, developing an enjoyable chemistry with Channan Hanif’s Sajawal as they recognise the void in one another. There’s also comic but meaningful support from Farazeh Syed as her mother-in-law. Good performances and a good initial concept captured within Khizer Idrees’ arresting cinematography and Fyque Nadeem’s art direction, but the film eventually isn’t sure what it wants to be.
Lali is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 7-18 October.
