An amusing bridal switcheroo, “Laapataa Ladies” (or “Lost Ladies” in some territories) makes effective use of Bollywood’s broad social messaging. This mode of storytelling can be heavy-handed for the sake of mass appeal, but director Kiran Rao deftly combines the literal and symbolic, resulting in a crowd-pleaser filled — for better or worse — with innate goodness.

Rao returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2011’s “Dhobi Ghat,” the somber Mumbai diary with heartrending music by Gustavo Santaolalla and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Among the most notable departures from her debut film is that the score for “Laapataa Ladies,” composed by Ram Sampath, has a bouncy and propulsive quality, keeping the movie’s comedic musings on track.

A passenger train plays host to a case of mistaken identity when young, lovelorn newlyweds Deepak Kumar (Sparsh Shrivastava) and Phool Kumari (Nitanshi Goel) are separated in an accidental spouse swap en...