Ek Chhotisi Love Story

Dude, this movie totally sucked. You should've seen the trailer which made it seem so philosophical and so touching and so heart breaking. You'd run to the nearest place this movie was screening after that to see what happened? Nothing of what you expect is found in this movie. Its completely tuned towards lust and sex rather than what the tagline says, for both the boy and the girl. You'd think that the writer at least came up with a good idea but could'nt pull it off, so deserves a little bit of credit. Wrong. This movie's director and writer has completely ripped off another western movie's plot and idea, as well as the story.

This is one of the worst Bollywood films ever made. It tells the sickening story of a 15 year old boy who loves a 26 year old women. Its weird, cos the boy is just so annoying and looks stupid. He spends long hours just spying on her with his telescope. Thats right, 50% of this movie, is the boy spying on her. Who is this film aimed at and what kind of people will enjoy this kind of trap. Its like gazing at a security camera hidden in someones room. With respect i would like to add that if the actress was beautiful and sexy, maybe the film would of had a reason to watch it. Manisha Koirala looks old, scruffy and ugly. There are little scenes of sex which is rare in Bollywood. Even these scenes were unsatisfying and turned me off. Manisha has made some of the most bizarre movies in Bollywood, Who knows why she chose this path. Some of these movies include Tum, Escape from Taliban and Market. The twist is even more disgraceful, where the boy stops looking at her and instead she starts spying on him. Rubbish acting from all actors in this movie, bad direction from Shashilal Nair. Do not watch this movie, a big waste of time.

The tragedy with this movie, if the censor norms are to be followed, is that the hero of the movie (the boy) won't be able to see this movie for the next 3 years in any theatre as he is just 15 and the CBFC has rated the film " STRICTLY FOR ADULTS". And with this classification by the censors, do we assume that the other adult movies which are un-strictly rated as A can be dealt with more leniently.

Anyway, about the movie, it's an ultimate test of your patience. In fact, the first 10 minutes made me wonder whether it was a silent movie until a word was finally uttered at the eleventh minute. And our ex-Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vaypayee has some tough competition here, because the dialogue delivery by the characters are much slower than his speeches.

Assuming it to be an experimental cinema with an unusual theme and without any songs or the regular masala items, expectations were high, but I was sorely disappointed. A boy, who lives only with his granny in some posh apartments, has his telescope constantly focused on the windows of the opposite flat secretly watching the personal activities of a woman. He is 15 – well, accepted. She is 26 – no way. Appearing older than 36 and heavier than 63, dunno what did the boy find so sexy about the women? Add to it her lousy dressing sense and a boyfriend who looks like her son and comes to her home regularly for some sex sex bang bang escapades. And all this while the woman never bothers to shut the windows of her apartment.

You can shut your eyes though. Not out of shame or disgust but boredom. A plot that could have been interesting if explored properly, this one is neither entertaining nor titillating. Ek Choti Si Love Story, Ek Bada Sa headache.

This movie is an assault to the senses and an insult to intelligence. Crappy Bollywood thieves churn out senseless copies of foreign classics, sans all their dignity, artistic value and finesse. As if murdering Hollywood movies wasn't enough, they are now gleefully mutilating avant garde European filmmakers like Kieslowski and Antonioni. The less said about the actors the better. What else can you expect from mindless copycats? Bollywood stinks! They don't even have the decency to acknowledge the originals. With the amount of money at their disposal, Bollywood guys could have made better movies. At least they are financially much better off than their Iranian, Romanian and Turkish counterparts. But it is the the utter lack of imagination and creativity that afflicts the filmmakers in this part of the world. The exceptions to this (Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and a few other such people) have always been relegated to the periphery of the popular cinema circles of India. Truly unfortunate.

This film is at the center of controversy, which seems to benefit everyone, including the filmmakers, whose film is a genuine hit. The controversy is courtesy of a couple of glimpses of a bottom that the lead actress Manisha Koirala claims to not be hers but that of a body double. Sure, Manisha comes off a bit curvaceous in the picture, but the extra weight only adds to the drama of her character. The main storyline appears lifted straight out of Kieslowski's "A short film about love," which was one of the films in his "Decalogue." It's a sensitive, well-directed story of a pubescent boy (Aditya Seal) who steals a telescope and spies on the life of an older woman in the building across from his. The boy falls in love with this single woman, who leads a rather unfulfilled life. The boy's naive, platonic feelings clash against the weary, wrinkled persona of Manisha's character. The film does consider the love of the flesh, but in tasteful, meaningful sequences that make the audience feel an emotion deeper than the rage of the chauvinist, sex-starved provocateurs that have brought violence to this film's screenings. Perhaps, they are rioting at the film's measured pace and lack of musical numbers, but what else could they expect from a film inspired by Kieslowki? Just think what they will do when Bollywood starts lifting films from Godard and Tarkovsky? That's the real danger to world peace.