Movie Review - LSD
Even if you guys haven’t heard of Dibakar Banerjee most of you would’ve heard of (or even seen) the movie ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ and/or ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’. DB established himself as a moviemaker to reckon with these two films. Well made, well acted and movies that pleased both the critics and the crowds (yeah, yeah). ‘Chak de patte’ from KKG is a number that’s still heard regularly (sung marvelously by Kailash Kher). LSD, the latest movie from DB is not in the same mould. It’s NOT light-hearted fun, breezy movie. It’s not even a conventional movie (even by Dibakar Banerjee’s or even Anurag Kashyap’s yardstick).
LSD (Love, Sex aur Dhokha) is a realistic, hard-hitting cinema captured on hand-held camera. It tells three different stories that run into one another albeit briefly. The stories don’t seem disjointed and the acting by the entire ensemble cast is uniformly superlative (everyone is new; you won’t find a single face that you might recognize from anywhere unless one of them is your friend). The movie is influenced by the happenings that have grabbed a lot of footage on news channels - the Nitish Katara - Bharti Yadav love story and its aftermath, the MMS scam and the sleazy stings.
So the three tales are about an Aditya Chopra-addicted film institute student who falls in love with the heroine of the movie he’s making (for his graduation), a youth-in-trouble-over-money willing to sacrifice emotions for cash and a dancer who’ll go any length to get featured in a music video (and a journo team into sleaze stings).
But beware before watching the movie! The language’s street lingo - filled with expletives and profanities, the violence (and sex)is graphic and disturbing and there are no cinematic conclusions. The entire movie more akin to a docu-drama or better still, appears to have been told from a neutral perspective, “It happened thus” way. It reminded me of an old movie (which bagged National Award then), ‘The New Delhi Times’ starring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore.
If you don’t mind thinking about the movie long after it’s over and you don’t have a queasy tummy go watch it. It’s ground-breaking in more ways than one. If you want your movie to be even remotely ‘enjoyable’ or have moralistic issues then this ain’t your cuppa!
(Oh of course, he could've even named it 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' too, aptly paying obeisance to that classic)
LSD (Love, Sex aur Dhokha) is a realistic, hard-hitting cinema captured on hand-held camera. It tells three different stories that run into one another albeit briefly. The stories don’t seem disjointed and the acting by the entire ensemble cast is uniformly superlative (everyone is new; you won’t find a single face that you might recognize from anywhere unless one of them is your friend). The movie is influenced by the happenings that have grabbed a lot of footage on news channels - the Nitish Katara - Bharti Yadav love story and its aftermath, the MMS scam and the sleazy stings.
So the three tales are about an Aditya Chopra-addicted film institute student who falls in love with the heroine of the movie he’s making (for his graduation), a youth-in-trouble-over-money willing to sacrifice emotions for cash and a dancer who’ll go any length to get featured in a music video (and a journo team into sleaze stings).
But beware before watching the movie! The language’s street lingo - filled with expletives and profanities, the violence (and sex)is graphic and disturbing and there are no cinematic conclusions. The entire movie more akin to a docu-drama or better still, appears to have been told from a neutral perspective, “It happened thus” way. It reminded me of an old movie (which bagged National Award then), ‘The New Delhi Times’ starring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore.
If you don’t mind thinking about the movie long after it’s over and you don’t have a queasy tummy go watch it. It’s ground-breaking in more ways than one. If you want your movie to be even remotely ‘enjoyable’ or have moralistic issues then this ain’t your cuppa!
(Oh of course, he could've even named it 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' too, aptly paying obeisance to that classic)