If you are a believer, the film says that God will appear and help us out of our troubles. Or you could say that true reflection is what will save us. Either way, it’s easy to see why this basic morality tale became such a blockbuster. That’s the short take. A longer review follows, and it may contain spoilers.
Tulsi (Reeva Rachh) is a homemaker, and the first scene of Laalo has her in a police station. Her husband Laalo (Karan Joshi) is missing. He is a tour guide with an auto-rickshaw, and he has debts as high as the hills. He is also some sort of alcoholic; though he’s functional at work, he still drinks every single day. When a tourist asks Laalo about his family, he smiles and he says that he has a daughter named Khushi. That smile disappears when he adds that he has a wife named Tulsi. Tulsi and Laalo have had a love marriage, but over time, that light has dimmed. And now, just before his wife came to the police station to talk about his disappearance, the couple has had a big fight about their finances. She was worried about their debts. He wanted to know why she can’t work and make some money. And then, he left home and never came back. His friends don’t know where he is. His parents don’t. It’s as though he has literally vanished.
Where is Laalo? That is the question taken up by this Gujarati film, which cost 50 lakhs and became the most profitable movie of 2025, grossing some 120 crores worldwide. The Hindi-dubbed version is now in theatres, and it’s a nice touch that the dubbing has been done with a Gujarati accent. At heart, Laalo is a cross between a prison-escape drama and a survival story. Due to a combination of desperation and greed, Laalo ends up being trapped inside a farmhouse. Like the protagonist in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped, Laalo has to survive in a place with no supplies. He has to chip away ice in the refrigerator for water. He learns to point a magnifying glass at the sun in order to make fire to light his beedi. And like in a prison-escape drama, Laalo has to break his way out.
But as the story unfolds, we see that Laalo is trapped in a different (metaphorical) kind of prison, which is a result of his actions. As a speaker on a spiritual TV channel says, we all have to face difficulties without being defeated by them. We have to face these difficulties with a calm mind and with determination. And that is why Laalo’s escape is designed as though a baby is emerging from the womb. At the end, Laalo is reborn. And the means for this rebirth is God, as played by Shruhad Goswami. Is this man really Lord Krishna or is he Laalo’s hallucination that bears the face of one of the tourists he drove around? The answer is… depends. If you are a believer, you might say that this is indeed God who has come to show Laalo the error of his ways and to help him find a way out of his human prison. If you are not a believer, you could say that this person is a manifestation of Laalo’s inner voice, which is why he (or He) is named Laalo, too.
But the point is this. Life has a way of decreasing your happiness. Existence corrodes you. It chips away at the purity you are born with. And we need to push through, either through faith or self-belief. The film is pretty basic in terms of craft and performances. There is a subplot about idol theft that doesn’t really go anywhere. We see a shady character who is Laalo’s friend – but this man isn’t integrated well into the proceedings. The flashback that shows Laalo and Tulsi in happier times is very generically done. The part where Tulsi finds a job is written like a skit. All told, I wasn’t moved – but I can see the appeal. Laalo is not like the older films about man and God, where someone is devout and their devotion to a deity makes that particular God help them out in times of trouble. Here, neither Laalo nor Tulsi are shown as especially religious. And yet, God (or a hallucinogenic manifestation) helps them out, either through actions or by acting as an inner voice. You could say the film is like a Krishna-Sudama piece of scripture or a reassuring self-help book. And that’s always a winner.
