If the typical bollywood lover wants something new. Go watch Love Sex aur Dhokha. It ain’t anything like you’ve seen before on the desi screen.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama reviewed positively saying, “On the whole, LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA is original, innovative and ground-breaking cinema, which will shock and provoke you. The film is definitely not for the faint-hearted or those who swear by stereotypical fares, but for those who yearn for a change.” and rated it 4 out of 5 stars.
LSD is from the DevD stable of movies. I think that is the best way of putting it. It is cult material.
LSD is fairly hard hitting. Its quite the obvious slap in the face to a generation increasingly high on LSD. OK. Thats not my opinion, but Dibakar Banerjee is definitely holding up a mirror in LSD.
The three central themes of love, sex and dhoka run as parallel threads in all three stories, making the biggest comment on contemporary relationships and values than anything else spoken .The stories wittingly or unwittingly explore the underlying sexual and gender dynamics that govern our relationships making the commentary weightier.
LSD has two heroes. One is the script and the other the technique. While the first is masterful, the second a good effort. It is the story and characters, lines and nuances, acting, setting and a million other little details that absorbs and connects, but that is regular DB fare.
It is a separate chapter in the annals of Hindi cinema, but since it refuses to be bold enough to pitch itself as one so its success as a ‘path-breaking’ film remains limited. LSD is definitely not for the K-Jo or Yashraj lovers, nor for the entertainment lovers But I would dare to say only for those who yearn for intelligent cinema for those few who still believe cinema can influence people for the better. LSD is not only another option to candyfloss cinema it so gleefully derides.
But even if you look carefully there are many aspects where the movie tries to be a typical bollywood film. The very first instance is in the second story where the girl so easily agrees to sleep with her boyfriend with whom she has just had a fight and that too immediately after hearing about the death of her best friend. Also the third story doesn’t sound convincing enough for a sting operation in the name of ‘journalism’. And the song at the end along with the credits just makes me pull my hair off. Overall it tried to ride on the fact that people get a kick from watching someone make out be it on screen or live.
Also for a serious cinema lover who has been following cinema of all sorts LSD has nothing that will not give you a sense of déjà vu. Agreed LSD has pushed up the bar in case of experimenting but it stops just there. It fails to push the envelope in any form, genre, treatment, content etc. It does not show us anything we haven’t seen before in any form. It would be unfair to compare but Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D, was far more ‘path-breaking’ in having achieved these things, even if the film as such was rather tame. Even DB’s very own OLLO was far more intriguing and innovative in showing us worlds we hadn’t been to before while making its tongue and cheek social commentary, even dripping in sarcasm at times. The throwback on the Tarantino-esque non-linearly connected narrative is another case in point to the same. Smart, interesting but that’s it.
On the whole it was a challenge no one had taken on till now. And it had a huge potential to change our dictionary of Hindi film language. HAD. The former deserves applause and immense encouragement. The latter, remains a territory undiscovered yet.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
An EYE-PEE-YELL STORY:2050
As Anath Jayasuria prepared to face another ball, several thoughts raced through his mind. After being bought by the Mumbai Indians for an astronomical $25 million in the 2050 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, he knew he had a reputation to keep up. Should he try a straight- forward Zandu balm Front Foot Drive this time, or should he aim for a Close-up Cover Drive? Or perhaps an ITC Square Cut would be a better idea? He realized he needed to hit an IBM boundary soon. Ever since IBM had announced they would pay Rs 1 lakh per boundary and Rs 5 lakh for a six, he had been trying to run less and hit more. Unfortunately, he hadn't been doing either in this match, because the Begusarai Bandits had some very good bowlers. The next ball,in midst of calculating the most profitable shot he played a Intel Inside Edge onto his Maggi middle stump and trudged off wearily the field along with his rattle snake bat to the accompaniment of boos from the Vodafone Zoozoo stand at the Kellogg's Special K-Cereal stadium in Udipi which were soon replaced by cheers as the new batsman Arjun Tendulkar came in to bat- the first time a father-son were going to play together in the same team in the history of the sport.
Relaxing in the Parle Glucose commentary box, Saurav Ganguly ruminated on the momentous changes in the game that had occurred since the IPL came into being. In 2010, he remembered, the game started to really grow, with huge sums of money being paid for the Pune and Kochi teams. Teams soon started springing up like frogs in the monsoon. And when the Gorakhpur Gorillas won the IPL in 2021, every district town in the country wanted its own side. Only Sachin Tendulkar was the omnipresent man still playing for the Mumbai Indians who had earned the tag of being unconquerable.
The IPL season was extended to six months in the year, then to 12 months and soon, once the villages started having their own sides, you had matches on all 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. All reality shows were aired in the cricket stadia and even a few movies screened there.
Industrialists sold off their old companies and bought IPL teams. Advertisers fought with each other to sponsor matches, stadiums, sixes, fours, shots, balls, wickets and what not. Every patch of the players' clothing, his arm guard, helmet, and pads was covered in advertisements. Durex started a new trend in merchandising with their radium abdomen guards which were selling like hot cakes.
As the money flowed in, players' salaries zoomed. Everybody wanted to be a cricketer. Engineering and medical colleges were deserted and Indian Institutes of Management converted themselves into institutes of cricketing management. Cheerleading became the most famous dance form across the country. Every college started having cheerleading workshops during their cultural festivals in addition to various famous dancers who had themselves started cheerleading academies.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Lalit Modi mooted a radical proposal in the Lok Sabha for nationalising the Board of Control for Cricket in India, pointing out that its profits would wipe out the government's fiscal deficit. He was also being held responsible for the food crisis in the country, he said, as villagers refused to till their fields and spent their time playing cricket instead.
A law prohibiting the transformation of arable land into cricket pitches was swiftly passed. A resolution to replace Gandhiji's photo on the currency notes with that of Lalit Modi's was also adopted unanimously.
Back in the commentary box, Ganguly did a rapid mental calculation and told his listeners that Ananth was now being paid the equivalent of Rs 10 lakh per run. Twice more than what Manchester United, who owned the Azamgarh Terrorists had offered. A twinge of regret passed through him -- during the IPL season in 2010, he recalled, he had been paid only about Rs 1.8 lakh per run. He needed to make more money, he thought. Maybe he would join Navjot Sidhu in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and be paid lakhs for laughing. For the rest of the match, he practiced laughing hysterically at each ball.
Relaxing in the Parle Glucose commentary box, Saurav Ganguly ruminated on the momentous changes in the game that had occurred since the IPL came into being. In 2010, he remembered, the game started to really grow, with huge sums of money being paid for the Pune and Kochi teams. Teams soon started springing up like frogs in the monsoon. And when the Gorakhpur Gorillas won the IPL in 2021, every district town in the country wanted its own side. Only Sachin Tendulkar was the omnipresent man still playing for the Mumbai Indians who had earned the tag of being unconquerable.
The IPL season was extended to six months in the year, then to 12 months and soon, once the villages started having their own sides, you had matches on all 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. All reality shows were aired in the cricket stadia and even a few movies screened there.
Industrialists sold off their old companies and bought IPL teams. Advertisers fought with each other to sponsor matches, stadiums, sixes, fours, shots, balls, wickets and what not. Every patch of the players' clothing, his arm guard, helmet, and pads was covered in advertisements. Durex started a new trend in merchandising with their radium abdomen guards which were selling like hot cakes.
As the money flowed in, players' salaries zoomed. Everybody wanted to be a cricketer. Engineering and medical colleges were deserted and Indian Institutes of Management converted themselves into institutes of cricketing management. Cheerleading became the most famous dance form across the country. Every college started having cheerleading workshops during their cultural festivals in addition to various famous dancers who had themselves started cheerleading academies.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Lalit Modi mooted a radical proposal in the Lok Sabha for nationalising the Board of Control for Cricket in India, pointing out that its profits would wipe out the government's fiscal deficit. He was also being held responsible for the food crisis in the country, he said, as villagers refused to till their fields and spent their time playing cricket instead.
A law prohibiting the transformation of arable land into cricket pitches was swiftly passed. A resolution to replace Gandhiji's photo on the currency notes with that of Lalit Modi's was also adopted unanimously.
Back in the commentary box, Ganguly did a rapid mental calculation and told his listeners that Ananth was now being paid the equivalent of Rs 10 lakh per run. Twice more than what Manchester United, who owned the Azamgarh Terrorists had offered. A twinge of regret passed through him -- during the IPL season in 2010, he recalled, he had been paid only about Rs 1.8 lakh per run. He needed to make more money, he thought. Maybe he would join Navjot Sidhu in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and be paid lakhs for laughing. For the rest of the match, he practiced laughing hysterically at each ball.
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