Toilet: A Love Story(2017)

Plot Summary

• In a village, a group of women go to a field, away from their village in the wee hours to defecate in the open, behind the cover of bushes. On their way and back, women are routinely harassed by lecherous men who know that women will never complain about their behavior as they have to come out daily and they do not want animosity with anyone.Keshav (Akshay Kumar) has to marry a buffalo because his father (Panditji) Pandit Vimalnath Sharma (Sudhir Pandey) is a very religious and superstitious priest, and he believes that his son's marriage to a buffalo will help improve Keshav's fortune. Keshav did not have the courage to talk to his father and hence had to let go of his girlfriend (Sana Khan) who is married off to another suitor.Keshav meets Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar). Jaya lives with her parents Jagdish (Atul Srivastava) and Vidya (Ayesha Raza Mishra). Dinanath (Anupam Kher) is Jaya's grandfather. Narayan (Divyendu Sharma) is Keshav's younger brother and Rampyari (Shubha Khote) is his grandmother.Jaya and Keshav start off on the wrong foot. He meets Jaya in a train & is smitten. Jaya is the state topper and Keshav, not so much as he can't even speak English. He owns and runs a bicycle shop & has to deliver an order. He finds out accidentally that his customer is Jaya. By mistake Keshav brings a male model cycle while Jaya's father had ordered a female model. After seeing Jaya, Keshav offers to fix the cycle by removing the center bar, but Jaya says that she does not have any issues and says that in the modern age women are no less capable than men and hence there should be no discrimination between them.He takes Jaya's photos to create posters for his company to increase his sales. Jaya is livid for Keshav to use her photos without her permission. Jaya overhears Keshav advising his adoptive sister Anu to run away with her boyfriend as their parents would never agree to their match. Jaya admonishes Keshav for running away from a problem, which she argues is never a solution. Keshav already had dreams of marrying Jaya and makes grandiose plans for the future.Keshav tries to be romantic with Jaya, and even reaches out to her on Holi. But Jaya stomps on his feelings. She tells Keshav that she and him are different in education, in status, in age and nothing can happen between them. Keshav goes away dejected and promises not to pursue Jaya. Before leaving Keshav does add that he has the best General knowledge in town (even though he is only 12th pass), no youngster can beat him in a race and that he has a pure heart who will always love the woman he marries and fight for her against the whole world.Jaya is stricken by Keshav's honesty & is attracted to him. Slowly they start going out together. But Keshav's father is of the view that Keshav's horoscope is such that he can and should only marry a girl who has got two thumbs on one of her hands. Since Jaya does not fulfill this requirement, Keshav gets an artificial thumb made and gives it to Jaya who wears it as a ring on her thumb. Keshav's unsuspecting father agrees to their marriage.On her first morning in Keshav's house, Jaya reluctantly goes to a field to defecate but comes back agitated without defecating and complains about it to Keshav. Jaya says that her village has proper toilets in every house and demands that Keshav build one for her.Despite Keshav's repeated attempts to convince Jaya to give up her stubbornness about needing a toilet, Jaya remains steadfast. He makes a couple of temporary adjustments to solve the problem without actually constructing a toilet in his house.Keshav personally takes Jaya to the fields, but Keshav's father runs into Jaya there, then Keshav takes her to the train station to defecate in a railways toilet when the train stops for a 7 minute halt. This doesn't work when one day Jaya is trapped inside the train toilet and the train leaves. After a while, Jaya gets frustrated and leaves him to live at her parents' house.After a futile attempt to convince his Sarpanch and villagers to builds toilets in the village, Keshav, with the help of Jaya, contacts the concerned regulatory authority, and starts the construction of a toilet in his front yard. When the construction is finished, Keshav's father and the Sarpanch arrange to demolish the toilet while Keshav is still asleep. But Keshav wakes up before the toilet is completely destroyed and protects it from complete demolition.Jaya now files for a divorce in the local court citing the unavailability of a toilet in her husband's house as the primary reason for seeking divorce. Due to its sheer absurdity, the case gets a lot of media attention. Politicians and the concerned government departments spring into action to hasten the process of constructing toilets in Keshav's village. But Keshav's father remains steadfast on his decision to not have a toilet in his house. Until one day, his mother, while going out to defecate, falls on the doorstep, injures her hip and cries vehemently that she can't possibly walk to the fields to defecate, and that she must use the toilet that Keshav constructed in the front yard. After much reluctance, Keshav's father gives in and helps his mother to the toilet. He then realizes that a toilet is indeed a critical requirement within a household.On the day of the hearing of the divorce case of Keshav and Jaya, the judge gets an official notice from the Chief Minister's office urging the judge to not grant their divorce as the construction of toilets in their village shall be started from the very next day. The couple comes out together happily. Keshav's father apologizes to Jaya for his foolish stubbornness.Villagers are shown lining up to use mobile toilets outside their village while construction of toilets throughout the village goes on in full swing.

Storyline

• Keshav and Jaya are from two villages near Mathura where at least 80% of households have no access to lavatories. Conflict comes knocking on the first day of their marriage, when Jaya discovers that Keshav's home has no toilet and she leaves. Distraught and desperate, Keshav embarks on a mission to win back his love by battling against the age-old traditions, mindset, and value system of his country. 36-year-old Keshav helps his brother Naru run their father's cycle business. He is still a bachelor because his superstitious father believes that he should only marry a girl who has two fingers on her left hand. He meets Jaya, a well-educated girl from a well-to-do family, and finally wins her after many attempts. But after they marry she realizes that Keshav's house has no toilet, and she departs. Determined to get her back, Keshav fights to have a toilet built in his village. — alex.mjacko@gmail.com