LSD -A Review

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.