When Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies premièred at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, it expectedly won rave reviews. Before the social comedy hits the screens next week, it will make a final pit-stop at Melbourne. It has been selected as the opening film of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne’s (IFFM) Summer Festival that will run from February 29 to March 2.

Currently in its second edition, the three-day festival continues to be a spiritual extension of the IFFM—which takes place in August annually—as it showcases the vibrant spirit of Indian cinema to a wider audience.

For Rao, it’s heartening to see her small-town comedy, which tells the story of how a young man’s life takes a turn when his new bride is unexpectedly switched with another, travelling across the world. She beams, “It’s a great honour for Laapataa Ladies to be the opening film at IFFM. I hope the Melbourne audience enjoys the film, and that I get to visit this city in person soon.”

Festival director Mitu Bhowmick believes the Sparsh Shrivastava, Pratibha Ranta and Nitanshi Goel-starrer is a perfect addition to the festival’s calendar, as she states, “We are thrilled to kickstart our latest venture with Kiran’s nuanced film that celebrates women and the unexpected complexities that life throws at us.”