Love Sex Aur Dhokha

Film: 'Love, Sex Aur Dhoka'
Director: Dibakar Banjerji
Cast: You!
Rating: * * * * 1/2

What appears to be a Tacky commercial playing on the cinema screen soon reveals it self to be the clever start of the third installment of Dibakar Banerji’s Delhi underbelly series.

A young couple bred in India (circa: Post DDLJ) makes a mushy diploma film that pays homage to Yash Chopra. They believe so truly in the power of the ‘happy ending’ (no pun intended) that they start to become the love-lorn Raj & Simran in real life. Their obsession with the camera documents their love story 24/7. They elope and exchange vows before a god who could have been hired from a film city temple. The naive lovers even prepare to face the ire of the girls’ dangerous family, being blinded by filmy dialogues like ‘now that we are married, your father will accept us.’

Slow motion shots, romantic music swells and amusing simple-minded banter suddenly jump cut to brutal reality. Your eyes are left open, wide, like a live camera, for the rest of this triple loaded LSD trip.

Welcome to the world of reality entertainment, where the star is you. Here, sex, betrayal and murder rate higher than Ekta Kapoor’s soap operas. With such easy access to the video camera, everyone enjoys voyeuristic real-life drama.

CC tv & handheld camera’s peek shamelessly into the lives of three young couples. These stories are deftly intercut to tell an ironic tale of rose tinted love, lust that deceives and the ultimate betrayal; the realization that the viewfinder has replaced the soul.

A desperate young man needs to pay nasty thugs who are out to recover a loan. He battles his conscience while setting up to shoot a sex video with a love struck colleague at a departmental store. To make a quick buck, he abuses his access to the closed circuit camera set up and takes advantage of the girl.

A sting operation cameraman, fallen from grace before his drama hungry office, must convince a model to seek revenge from a tacky pop star. She films the arrogant singer as he abuses his position, by offering her work for sex.

Interweaving stories cleverly, ‘Love, Sex Aur Dhoka’, holds a stark mirror up to society. And just when the content starts to get uncomfortable, it uses a zoom lens to shoot deeper into the dark recesses of the soul. As the line between personal and public blurs, you realize that this trip will be an unforgettable one.

Writers Dibakar Bannerjee, Urmi Juvekar and Kanu Behl write a flawless script that is ‘ballsy’, ‘edgy’ and extremely poignant. The film is edited beautifully by Namrata Rao, whose awe-inspiring cut is supported by a great sound design by Pritam Das. The dialogue is crisp and witty and sincerely takes on the flavor of the North belt.

The performances by the young cast are shockingly convincing. Watch out for Anshuman Jha and Shruti as the couple that elopes into ‘a not so Bollywood’ climax, Raj Kumar Yadav and Neha Chauhan as the couple in the store sex video are excellent as are Amit Sial and Arya Devdutta as the cameraman and model planning a sting operation. Henry Tangdias music video "king" Loki Local is hilarious. This last story takes it time to unfold as it delivers the films thought provoking closing message.

This film clearly belongs to the unconventional craftsman that is Dibakar Banerji. He takes what must be the budget of three television episodes, works with a fresh, in-experienced cast and boldly takes sex into mainstream cinemas. Banerji scores a well-deserved hatrick after ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’. Watch ‘LSD’ and tell your friends about it. This film may rely on your word of mouth publicity for its success.

Welcome Mr. Dibaker Lucky Khosla back onscreen, representing the new age Bollywood Cinema of the current times from the front. With a completely unexpected, novel and experimental kind of project, the director returns with a bang, walking on his own invented path, breaking all the pre-existing molds of film-making in India. 

A few months back, I received a mail questioning why I had included Dibaker in my list of “Directors I Love” along with all the respected and well known names of Indian & World Cinema. The answer now comes in the form of “Love Sex And Dhokha”, a project which may or may not get instant appreciation from the common man, but will undoubtedly be remembered as an important breakthrough in Indian Cinema and its thought process on the medium. 

First of all, don’t go for this movie, simply expecting many over the top, sexual sequences showing the skin, as suggested by its title. As a matter of fact, if you are just there in the theater, to watch a sex-movie then you are going to be disappointed a lot. Because this is not merely a sensational piece of work, trying to cash on its title and sex scenes. On the contrary LSD is a thought provoking film, which forces you to think about whether there still exists any private life in this fast progressing technical world around us? With spy cameras installed almost everywhere in this tech-savvy globe, have we completely lost all our private moments to the public or there still can be any solution to tackle this serious burning issue? 

The movie basically showcases three distinct youthful stories, which have the important ingredients of love, passion, greed and lust in different dosages. All the three, are related to each other in a peculiar way, quite similar to the movies of the world renowned director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Amores Perros, 21 and Babel fame. However, Dibaker

shows the interconnection between the 3, only towards their respective ends which actually provides another surprise element into the narration and works to a great extent. As far as camerawork is concerned, he also seems to be inspired from the recent Hit project shot on handy cam called “Paranormal Activity”. 

Content wise, once again the director indicates his immense liking towards subjects inspired from the real life incidents. The movie is full of cases which you may have heard or seen on the net in the recent past. There are clear references of real life episodes such as Miss Merrut’s sting operation, MMS clips of a newly-wed, Sex clips of a young couple in a store and a Hip-Hop singer speaking Punjabi and getting involved in the case of casting couch. In fact Dibaker Bannerjee has got an unmatchable skill of using the real life news clips in his projects. And this is a proven fact, taking into account, both his previous movies which were highly inspired from real life facts and characters. However, his films might not be a pleasant experience to watch with the entire family due to his overuse of abusive language and inclusion of highly suggestive sexual scenes in his scripts.

Besides this, the other exclusive master touch possessed by the director is the way he uses Punjabi language in his dialogues and also names of famous places of Delhi in his sequences. For instance just notice the way, the morning shift store girl (in the second story) speaks her dialogues with a distinctive Delhi Punjabi accent. It clearly shows the strong influence of Delhi and its friendly punjabi life style on Dibaker. Frankly speaking, I can easily vouch that till date the most authentic portrayal of the city Delhi and its life style can easily be found in all the three movies coming from the talented director in the recent years.

Coming to the technical aspects of the movie, Yes, the camera is shaking, the images get blurred and there is a substantial use of night vision. But these all concern you only for a few initial moments and that’s it. After the first few scenes, the subject takes you in and you simply forget about all the technical hitches coming on the screen at regular intervals. Especially the opening titles of the movie explain it all and help in building up the right mood for the movie’s novel concept and treatment.

Cinematography is simply superb, very realistic and leaves such an impact that at times you don’t even remember you are watching a movie in the theater. Particularly the use of Handy cams, security cameras and spy cameras is really commendable. Editing is fast, crisp and very close to the real life movement we all witness in our daily lives. Musically, the title track is very catchy and already popular in the youth. Another song of the movie, which had very vulgar lyrics, could not make it to the screen due to the strict censorship. But strangely, it is openly discussed by the characters in the third story. Also the creative artwork of the movie deserves a special mention as it highly innovative and suggestive. The film consists of all new talents who never ever show the signs of their first project on screen and are able to impress. Everyone just looks like his or her character in the script and their collectively effort is a real treat to watch.

In nutshell, Ekta Kapoor has made a very noticeable debut in the genre of experimental cinema, which will surely bring her both profits and appreciation together. And what to say about the director, Dibaker Bannerjee! He won millions of hearts with his first two movies and now once again delivers a worth watching & path breaking project consistently. Unarguably, he is one of the most talented and innovative directors of our times who can ensure you serious content along with his own stamp of comedy and satire.

In simple words, if you live, eat & drink cinema then you are sure going to love this great piece of art. And for all other friends, who only watch movies as just another form of entertainment, you may or may not like it…..but you will not be able to neglect it.

Rating : 4 / 5 (Great! But more shocking content was being expected)

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com)