Monday, April 5, 2010

Viewed: LOVE, SEX AUR DHOKA

There are moments in LSD when someone declares love, blushes in shyness, shows anger, reveals frustration and you know you have been witness to exactly such incidents. This is the beauty of such a film that highlights moments you can relate to and know people who are like these characters in real life.

One of India's most promising filmmakers, Dibakar Banerjee delivers another solid tale. The fact that this guy knows how to weave a good story is proven by the fact that he works with a not-so-normal formats and absolutely fresh talent to make some interesting comments on our society and critically doing a very good job of story-telling.

He also takes the challenge of telling three different stories through three different formats - camcorder, store-cam and spy-cam. Though linked with each other on the surface they work on their own as distinct stories.

What stands out the most is the cleverness to deal with such topical subjects and through different ways including reality-tv format. The whole film thanks to the real characters works on the real level. Even though you are not used to seeing such fare on the big screen.

It's an interesting choice. Feeding audience an experience on a screen, which they are not used to. And at the same time, they witness it all the time on television, internet and even on cell. The film is chiefly based on today's youth and since they are exposed to all these formats it's definitely a smart way to shake the cinema presentation.

Eventually it has to be all about the story. That's where Dibakar scores very well. He focuses on each tale with two main characters and forces them in situations that is the bane of our times. There is the powerful story of a couple falling in love and running away to marry but with tragic consequences. Then about a guy who befriends a girl in a shop with the intention of shooting a sex clip. Last is the sting operation of a man with the help of a girl to expose an exploitative singer.

The key thing what Dibakar does and which could impact the film-going experience to a big extent is dealing with topics in the way it is. You have couples getting cozy as in real life. Getting into intimacy and sex. And critically with characterization just like of real folks.

Dibakar for the third straight time focuses on Delhi where he belongs to and again does a good job in depicting the mannerisms of Delhites. However it's all about emotions and that's what he captures very well most of the times.

The first story about a couple falling in love and running away is extremely powerful which takes a dig on Bollywood and how every one reveres 'Adi Sir'. This story with enough time between the protagonists works the best. The end of the story is quite chilling.

The second story about the store manager trying to woo the salesgirl depicts the dark side of many a young Delhiites pretty well. The best part is the casting of the girl. However it's her character that somewhat has a problem as it jumps too suddenly to make the transition from a introverted girl to one making advances with too much of ease.

The third story is more fun than serious and seems a bit stretched. This is one story that tries to do too much and one wishes that it was more gripping. Yet to end it with this flavor of humor has a nice effect which resolves with the scene where all three stories got connected and ending with the title song of LSD, which is good fun.

The critical question and the most challenging thing to do - how does it work to tell stories through such formats? Especially when it tries to deliberately be off-the-mark. Many times, perhaps most times it works great even if you don't see the faces of people since emotionally the scenes have been setup well. However there are a few times when you would have liked to stay a bit more with the characters; lil' more close-ups, slower pace of cutting.

Even Oye Lucky Lucky Oye had this issue of trying to go too fast. Another solid entertaining flick with great tempo but trying to build too fast a momentum at times.

Point is - had there been less shaking and more focus on the characters it could have been better. Though staying close to his central characters help in a big way when the plots unfold with conflict and tension rises, which Dibakar manages pretty well.

When you see today's cinema under the pretext of realism delivering cliche after cliche and then you see a film like LSD that effectively captures the characteristics of our society, that too with people who nobody in Bollywood would dare to touch, you wonder what's wrong with the country, with the industry.

 It seems every one is blindfolded but a few like Dibakar have insight that provides so much meaning to this rusted fraternity. If there's hope, it's only thanks to folks like him.


Rating ***

[Max Rating ****]


[Viewed at Fun Chembur on 31st March, 2010, 10.30 am show. Just 11 people but three Sonepat 50+ folks who were busy on the phone but seemed to enjoy the film.]

No comments:

Post a Comment