Starring Katherine Ross, long remembered as Mrs. Robinson's daughter in The Graduate, plays the lead role in this screen adaptation of Ira Levin's chilling novel of a twisted sort of utopia.

A family uproot itself from the chaos of life in New York city to resettle in the picture perfect suburbia of Stepford. It doesn't take long for Ross to realize that something is seriously wrong with the townfolk. The women are obsessed with cleaning their kitchens, meticulously and slavishly cooking all day long for their husbands, adorning themselves to look beautiful for their men, pruning the garden, shopping endlessly, discussing the virtues of "Easy On" spray as opposed to another brand, basically they are like 95% of the women in Islamabad, let alone Stepford.

The women are totally vacuous, their only ambition and aim in life is to a life like barbie doll for their ogrous husbands ! The sinister truth is gradually revealed as one by one even the few normal people in Ross's life are transformed into Barbie doll clones.

The film directed by Bryan Forbes has recently been released by Elite on Laser Disc and is fairly effective for the most part. Somehow, one gets the feeling that in the hands of a more competent director the film could have been a touch more tense.

This film is perfect as a potential remake for Pakistani audiences just to awaken millions of women into believing that there is life beyond the confines of the kitchen and bedroom. And maybe there is something a little more sinister to the sort of mind control that men apply or try to apply in most societies, including our own.

An earnest, thought provoking film, recommended especially for women whose conversation is basically confined to what they will be wearing at the dinner that evening or the superior performance of Lux as compared to Capri.