Ek Chhotisi Love Story

This less-spirited Krzysztof Kieslowski's movie, "A Short Film About Love", fails in so many accounts. This is a good example for film school students on how a movie could still fail in spite of having pretensions to the contrary.

The plot doesn't make any concessions to its setting and does not make any attempts to connect it to its Indian setting. Character development needs much to be desired and it drags on. Overall, the movie gives as much pleasure as a coitus interruptus. It doesn't quite start right, picks up a little steam in the middle and fizzles because the director doesn't know how to end it.

Nair tries to capture the obsession and disappointment of the boy from the original film but loses it by trying to dilute it to placate the Indian viewer. Unfortunately, this film is likely to disappoint its intended target, the educated urban Indian and Indian Diaspora and will never appeal to the average Indian movie-goer who cannot relate to the treatment.

Maneesha Koirala overacts and doesn't seem to get the nuances that her character should have. Aditya Seal is satisfactory. The rest of the cast appear like props without much to do.

If you have to see this movie, please stick to the original.

The controversy about "Ek Chhotisi Love Story" seems to overshadow the discussion about its quality. Many people thought the sex scenes are too daring. Others believed, the relationship between a 15 year old boy and a 26 year old woman is a very evil thing. I leave everyone his/her moral, but it seems rather strange in a country where marriages with minors are still being arranged. But ... that's somehow off topic.

I want to talk about the film, not morals. And sadly, there's not much good to report. The movie is lensed in a stylish low budget way. You get lots of monochrome colors and hand held camera appeal. That adds to the voyeuristic flavor since the plot revolves around Aditya (15) who is in love with a woman (26) he watches from his window. The first ten minutes have no dialogue. And no quality. The director tries to make us connect with Aditya by showing us exactly what he sees. By making us the voyeur. What works in theory, doesn't work here. Not at all. The woman didn't fascinate me. She bored me. And if that happens, one can not relate with the boy's feelings - and that's all the director wanted to achieve in the first place.

But it's not all lost. The second half, when the boy finally makes contact with the woman, is an improvement. Nice to see an actress (it's actually Manisha Koirala from "Dil Se") having a couple of kilos more than your average supermodel. And her scenes with the boy are interesting and daring - in a dialogue way. A lot of the more daring stuff is hinted at or talked about. Not seen. But "ECLS" doesn't know how to continue. Actually, it doesn't even know how to end. The little momentum the film gets when the two meet gets lost quickly and it ends boring. Thus leaving the viewer with a bad overall experience.

And now, what about the sex, huh? Much ado about nothing. Really, seriously. I was laughing when I saw the scenes. Not because they were bad, but because they were tame. Yes, they were rather daring for a traditional Bollywood movie, but come on! How could anyone get all angry about the movie because of those scenes? They don't even involve the boy. Not that they should - but I was truly shocked by the people who hear that someone heard that something bad was in some movie - and promptly start a riot. Why not invest that energy somewhere useful? Well, I'm digressing again. That's perhaps because "ECLS" is not really worth a lot of words. I appreciate that it's not conventional. But it's not good either. So it gets a

4/10

its nothing more than a cheap lift from Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue six, thou shall not commit adultery.

the movie fails to inspire, and is a drag, trust me, watch the original one.

its a classic.

the film by shashilal nair, crated controversies, of course for wrong reasons, i was inspired to see the film as the film contains some steamy scenes of Manisha Koirala, but unfortunately , there is none....

A perfect example of how bollywood can destroy even the most well made movies.

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 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.