Monday 22 August 2011

Not a Love Story

2011 by Ram Gopal Varma - Hindi movie

I made a promise to myselves, after watching No one killed Jessica, that I would not attempt to watch another Bollywood experiment of a true crime story. I knew this one was based on the infamous Neeraj Grover murder case and it was directed by the once brilliant RGV, but I wanted to ignore my promise, just because of Mahie Gill. Here is an actress in Bollywood, who can really act, Dev D had proved it to me so I really felt I must not miss this one.

Anusha has a possessive boy friend in Robin, who quite obviously, as any Indian with some common sense have some idea how things work for a Bollywood entrance,  is not receptive to her idea of trying out to be an actor in Bollywood. But his love for her, lets her leave for Mumbai and give it a try. Obviously, Anusha meets those who wants to try her other talents than acting and is almost disappointed, when finally, she is offered a real chance. She calls Robin, shares her joy, and then goes for a party with all her friends and the casting guy, who accompanies her to her apartment, drunk obviously, and both have a very late night sleep. Robin, wanting to congratulate his would be, flies into Mumbai and knocks at the door. Anusha can only behave as if the casting guy is just trying to rape her. Robin, does what every man would do, kills the man. 

Mahie Gill is good, but she still looks a bit over age for this character, for me at least. But to be frank, I cannot imagine a single different actress from Bollywood who can do all those, repeated a lot, close shots of crying out loud scenes, with even half the results as hers. She could still have been better, but I thought, she has done it much much better than any contemporary Bollywood actress would have. Others might have looked comical with so many of such shots, that too with a camera so close. The actor, who really stood out for me, was Zakir Hussain, who did a brilliant under play as the investigator. This kind of underplay is achieved by Bollywood only rarely.

The unbearable part about this movie is its camera. I really doubt the intentions when RGV use this kind of camera angles, always having Ms. Gill's legs on the fore ground. (There is even a shot with a bra in the fore ground!!!) Until the second half of the movie, when it is into the investigation and court, Mahie has to do a lot of cleavage shows and the camera is always in a low angle. What for? And such angles are nearly absent in the second half. Add to this the horrible camera movements, which can even create some pain for ones eyes, together with some horrible back ground score, the movie is a little bit of pain actually. But it is still watchable, only because of the shock and seriousness of the plot. I really wish there was a camera, the presence of which would not have been noticed, for this movie. There is a touch of realism for many scenes, until the advocates walk in for each party. And the final scene between Anusha and Robin, is truly brilliant. If I would remember this movie after a couple of years, it would be for that single scene. Brilliant.

I really had many questions during the movie.

Do girls in our country still believe, that they can fly into Mumbai and look for an acting career, without show casing their talents outside acting, at all?

Dont our women smell something bad, when our men want to come to their apartment, late at night, drunk or not?

Having a possessive/ non possessive boy friend, who keeps calling every hour or not, how can a woman not take his calls, especially late at night, and think all will be allright?

All what is required to bed a girl, is just two drinks and a sad story at late night?

How the hell can a man walk into his girls apartment, in the morning, sees a man naked there and can still believe the word of his girl that the naked man is trying to molest her? How stupid can a man be?

Even after all the blood shed, there doesn't seem to be a single word from this stupid man to his girl about how the hell this man ended up naked in his girls apartment?

How can an educated man and woman be so stupid to decide that one can say the other never came to Mumbai at all.  (Investigation for this crime, I thought, is so simple even a college student could have done this, so foolish were the acts, how the two lovers carried it out. )

All these questions does not have anything to do with the movie, as it might be what really happened, but I find it quite amusing. Are all our men and women really stupid like this? During the investigation, Robin asks the officer, what would you have done, if you were in my place? Good question, but ... sounds really strange for me.