Film Impressions

REVIEW: Love Sex Aur Dhoka

VOYEURS ALL

Dibakar Banerjee hit on a terrific idea-- people are so hooked on to reality TV, why should they not be fed reality cinema too? He uses the 'mockumentary' style to tell three stories-- cleverly interconnected-- that try to capture a slice of North Indian life, with brutal frankness.

Love Sex Aur Dhoka has one foot in the world where honour killings still take place, and one in which pornography is avidly consumed by ordinary people; there are sting operations by a sensation hungry media, and 'compromises' demanded from showbiz-obsessed girls, by lechy pop stars.

REVIEW: Love Sex aur Dhokha

CONSUME WITH CAUTION

Dibakar Banerjee’s third film, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, a.k.a. LSD, is, in many ways as inventive as Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye. Cannily shot and superbly acted by a bunch of newcomers, this film deserves to be seen by a society that’s mindlessly accepting digital images through various media, without understanding the implications of its voyeurism. Irony is, LSD too may end up becoming a just vehicle of titillation instead of invoking revulsion, as I presume, the director intends it to, if the audience doesn’t receive it with sensitivity.

There’s nothing pretty about this picture and it’s entirely on purpose. Shot on a digital format and carefully designed to seem like tacky home video, CCTV or spy cam footage, while still looking aesthetic, LSD is pitch-perfect in the craft department. The interconnections between the three stories woven together to depict Love, Sex and Dhokha, seem forced, but at least two of them stand well on their own.