Love Sex aur Dhokha: A fresh experience

Today I watched Love Sex aur Dhokha.

Not paying much attention to the latest Bollywood stuff these days, I knew nothing about this movie. In fact, I had not even heard its name until yesterday when one of my flatmates had shouted to me, as I was having my bath, whether I would like to go for it. I had then agreed to it basically in want of any fitter occupation on the lazy Sunday.

But the movie was different. It was a very fresh experience in terms of what Bollywood usually churns out. And for a change, it did not make me feel like 'why did they have to make the second half' or 'why did they have to solve the mystery', at the end of the movie, as had often been the case these days!

It had three different stories having a coincidental conjuncture - showing us parts of lives captured in different cameras - being narrated to us mostly through those cameras. In a way, the cameras are more the protagonists of the story than the principal human characters.

The first tale involves a camera of a student of a film institute trying to create a masala movie - and falling for the actress in the process, and what follows thereafter. Most of the scenes shown to us are from his camera - as he shoots - or progresses through his movie making - keeping his camera rolling most of the time.

The second tale is that of a security camera of a departmental store - showing us its part and involvement in a voyeuristic endeavour of capturing and selling 'real' footages having sexual undertones (or proper sex), involving the male-female regulars (staff, customer, etc.) of the store.

The third tale is that of a revenge sting operation orchestrated by a debutante against a popular pop star, in attempt to implicate him by exposing his methods of demanding sexual favours in return for providing the 'launch' to debutantes.

The three stories are connected by a thin line - coincidental, yet very distinctly portrayed, mainly serving the purpose of continuity, such that the audience finally feels the three plots to be part of the same larger landscape, instead of them being discreet experiences.

The entire film employed a very honest and direct mode of expression making some practically unrealistic sequences comes across as real and normal. The director had been able pull the audience very successfully into the realm of the movie. The characters, their dialogues, all seem very real - the entire cast had done a very good job in their roles - portraying just the characters they were expected to portray, falling very smugly into the places.

Technically, the movie uses the kinds of shots and angles that would appear natural to sting cameras, security cameras, hand-held digicams, and such - truly the shots from the cameras which seem to be telling the story. Yet, all this is done in a masterful way - keeping the storytelling and the impacts alive.

The movie also very successfully keeps the audience laughing all through, sometimes with its use of bold profane words in the exact same style as they are really used among friends, sometimes with its satirical humorous takes, and sometimes, as in the first tale, with simple direct portrayal of our own imitation styles of Bollywood emotional sequences.

Overall, it is a good movie, a fresh experience, and a recommended watch. It seems modern Bollywood is finally shaking off its fears and coming of age.