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Toilet: A Love Story(2017)
Reliance Big Pictures Aug 11, 2017 | Limited
A woman threatens to leave her husband unless he installs a toilet in their home. To win back her love and respect, he heads out on a journey to fight against the backward society.
Releases
Original Release | Aug 11, 2017
Box Office
Results
$678,436
$1,830,715
$15,736,702
$17,567,417
Director & Top Cast
Other Details
Country of Origin: India
Summaries
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. Keshav (Akshay Kumar) has to conduct a ceremonial wedding with a bovine animal because his father (Panditji) Pandit Vimalnath Sharma (Sudhir Pandey) is a very religious and superstitious priest, and he believes that his son's ceremonial marriage to a buffalo will help improve Keshav's fortune.Keshav meets Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar). Jaya and Keshav start off on the wrong foot. Jaya is the state topper and Keshav, not so much as he can't even speak English. He meets Jaya in a train & is smitten. He owns and runs a bicycle shop & has to deliver an order. He finds out accidentally that his customer is Jaya. 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. 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 and nothing can happen between them. Keshav goes away dejected and promises not to pursue Jaya. 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. Keshav 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. Keshav takes her to the train station to defecate in a railways toilet when the train stops. 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. In the end credits, 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
