May 09, 2010 07:54 PM
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A milestone in contemporary Indian cinema, Dibakar Banerjee's LSD(love, sex, aur dhokha) is intoxicating. There are three plot lines in this movie, and all of them are shown to overlap at some point in the film's overall time frame. Even though we have come across this type of screenplay in Yuva type of movies, the overlap is not substantial or crucial to entice me to draw parallels with those movies.
The "love" storyline is between Rahul and Shruti. Rahul is a student of a film institute and he fells in love-at-first-sight with Shruti, who is acting in his directorial amateur project. Love blossoms between the two, and the Rahul compares his love story with that of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. It is funny especially when he calls Shruti "Simran" before his father. However, unlike DDLJ where SRK wants Kajol's father blessing, Rahul decides to get married and then face her father. A pretty wrong calculation, as her mushy father entices both Rahul and Shruti to hop back in a car and come back home for a lavish reception party, he sets things in motion to have them eliminated completely. On their way back, Rahul and Shruti are dragged out of the car, Rahul murdered before Shruti, then she is murdered, then their heads are chopped off, and then they are cut into pieces and dumped into a plastic bag. Definitely one of the best murder scenes of the year! Even the storyline seem to be taken from a normal love-failure bollywood flicks, the presentation is excellent.
The "sex" story line is based on Adarsh, a no-degree no-job debt burdened guy who works in his friend's granddad supermarket, and Rashmi, an helper in the supermarket. After warned by "collectors" to repay the loan, Adarsh looks for any avenue to mop up the required funds. His friend gives an idea about how to utilize the store cameras to capture the libidinous acts of customers and sell them for a plump amount. He suggests that Adarsh trap Rashmi into love-making and sell the video. Adarsh tries, but he seem to fall for the skinny-darkskinned-bitch Rashmi(as said by himself), and gets pissed off when other customers try to make a pass at her. Rashmi also likes him but only after she is left in a totally vulnerable state after hearing the horrible fate of her friend Shruti(from Love), Adarsh is able to take advantage of her. Before the sex, Adarsh proceeds to switch off the cam, only to decide against doing it, and then lying to Rashmi that he had indeed done so. The sex clip becomes one of the most downloaded, and Adarsh and Rashmi are fired. No one is unable to trace Rashmi, whereas Adarsh is engaged to get married. For this storyline, we really dun want to look too much for inspiration; the DPS mms scandal, the first full blown(no pun intended) sex scandal of the Indian internet era, comes into mind.
The "Dhoka" line is based on Naina, an aspiring actress who is forced to perform sexual favors to a famous pop-singer Loki in return for a slot in his music video, and Prabhat, a sting-reporter. Prabhat saves Naina when she tries to commit suicide, and offers her to get back at Loki if she can make Loki say before a camera that he wants sex to offer her a place in music video. The first sting doesn't go well, however they get lucky the second time. Prabhat shows the video(he deliberately cuts the love-making scene) to his editor, but she wants more leverage. A third meeting is arranged in the supermarket where Naina confronts Loki that she has enough evidence to convict him. Loki gets angry and tries to take away camera from Naina brandishing his revolver, only to shoot Prabhat. Rashmi(from "sex") provides first aid to Prabhat which makes him to survive the shot wound. In the hospital where Prabhat is recuperating, we get to see a different dimension of him. The hospital scene is the only scene where all the 6 protagonists of the movie are shown sharing the screen space.
Dibakar Banerjee must have lot guts to take this kind of movie. Even with an'A' certificate, this movie is prone to draw criticisms from conservative circles. The movie length is 1 hour 50 minutes, but I can't seem to guess how many minutes of footage were censored. The wiki says that there is a 10 minute bare back love making scene cutoff, but I wonder if there were many more.
The first full length digital-movie from India, this movie deserves so many more accolades for taking subjects considered taboo even by the majority of progressive Indians. Many important issues such as caste, color of the skin, exploitation are shown blatantly without any preaching. There are no goody-goody endings in this story. Every frame shows the stark reality. Even with a jerky camerawork, the presentation is clear. In fact, the camera work adds an extra dimension to the story telling. I give a double thumbs up to this movie. A must watch for any movie buff.
