LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha

How many times does it happen that during the 8.30 am 'first-day-first-show', you also have one of the lead actors watching the film? It happened today. The actor was Raj Kumar Yadav, who plays the lead in the second story of the film, with his bunch of friends, to cheer at the CBFC certificate and clap at the rolling credits. The film was LSD – which is going to be remembered as one of the gutsiest film ever made in this country. And if you ask me, it is one of the better made ones too.

Everyone is talking about the use of digital cameras in the film, that shake, that go out of focus, that even get stained by blood and water. They are talking about how 'different' it is in its theme, style and use of unknown actors. But it is not the elements that make this film different and significantly better than most of others, it is how the director uses them - an evidence of how cinema can be created by a basic understanding of the medium, of picture and sound, and storytelling, and how a style can be carved out of the technology you use. And this technology, as Godard et al taught us, need not be expensive or state-of-art.

There are scenes in the film pictured in long single shots – as there is just one evident hidden camera. Unlike other films, here you do not have multiple camera setups, so you can not cut between shots – unless you want to use the obviously jerky jump-cut (which in my opinion often breaks the dramatic build-up of the scene). So, you obviously can not 'cut time' and hence the scene occurs in real time, giving you not only dialogue but also the pauses between them – those significant, dramatic moments between the conversations. And to add to that, there is no background music here, only ambient sound. By something as basic as this, the director has managed to create unforgettable cinematic moments and deeply affecting scenes. This is just one of styles adopted by LSD – that makes it truly different, as far as Hindi films are concerned.

You will find so many similar small but brilliant international films in festivals. This time, thanks to the producers, we have one such gem from India, released commercially. I pray for its success – it will help not only independent and digital cinema, but Hindi cinema in general. After Khosla ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, with LSD, Dibakar Banerjee establishes himself as one of those few men in our industry, who know cinema, and who have an expression of their own. And I must congratulate and thank him for proving once again, that to make a good film you hardly need budget and stars. You just need to have a story you are dying to tell, and the cinematic vision, the heart, and a little guts, to do that.

Love, Sex aur Dhokha (LSD) is the 3rd movie directed by Dibakar Banerjee after the hit comedy Khosla ka Ghosla & the entertaining Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!. All the actors were newcomers. The movie is produced by Ekta Kapoor ((who, if you are an Indian you would know, is responsible for the daily psychological torture of millions of Indians (mostly males)).

The movie has 3 stories each representing a part of the title. All the 3 stories are shot in a voyeuristic manner. The first story deals with a richgirl-poorboy love story & is shot from the perspective of a hand-held amateur video camera. Most of the humour in LSD is in the first story. The base for the second story is MMS sex clips & is shot from a CCTV camera angle. The third one is about the casting couch & is filmed mainly through the view point of a sting/hidden camera. Although the 3 stories are independent of each other, the characters in the 3 stories are connected. The film itself is non linear in nature as the three stories are running simultaneously.

I generally like innovative opening credits & LSD starts with interesting title sequence. So I advise not to miss the opening. All the actors have done very good job especially considering that this is their debut. Another good thing about LSD is that it has no songs save for one along the end credits. Background score, although not spectacular, isn't bad either. As mentioned earlier traditional camera isn't used here. So the movie is a little grainy at parts & may take a few minutes to get used to.

The end to the 2nd story is a bit forced. Some clarity & development was necessary for the motives of Rashmi for what she does at the end. Also the third story appears a little contrived at parts. Apart from these minor glitches the movie was very well written.

Dibaker Banerjee has tackled a very dangerous & taboo subject in a superb manner. Full marks to him. Bollywood is lucky to have directors like him, Anurag Kashyap & Vishal Bhardwaj.

LSD is a very disturbing movie to say the least. The director has ventured into a risky territory but the movie is definitely worth the risk. Most of the people are not wired to acknowledge the perils of the society that they live in. Generally people tend to ignore & forget the evil or loathsome deeds that they see or hear as soon as possible. They tend to live in their own fantasy lands forcing themselves that all is well. In fact yesterday the front page headline of Times of India is about a 12 year old girl who was repeatedly raped for the past year by not only her cousin but also by another 7-8 people (including a 65 year old man) in her locality. For every couple of weeks there is a news report about an honour killing in Haryana. For every official report there are numerous unofficial ones. But very few people remember these things for this pollutes the general feel good factor that they have towards society (read themselves). It is safe to assume that most of the people will forget the above mentioned headline in a very short time. To tackle such realistic subjects needs a lot of courage. The whole team of LSD should be applauded for their effort.

To remove any apprehensions regarding the word sex in the title, there are no explicit sexual scenes in the movie. A special note regarding the back drop of first story. Actually the love story in it was supposed to have a caste based divide. But the great Indian Censor Board (which doesn't even have a working website & which probably has a rating system from the Ashoka era) has objected to this & forced to change the caste divide into rich-poor divide. A double thumbs-down to the Indian Censor Board. With the caste background the first story would have been more gritty & genuine.

This is the kind of movie where a viewer doesn't have any midway opinion after watching. You either like it immensely or abhor it. I for one am in the former category. Irrespective of what your peers say, I strongly recommend you to watch Love, Sex aur Dhokha at least once.

Welcome Mr. Dibaker Lucky Khosla back on screen, representing the new age Bollywood Cinema of the current times from the front. With a completely unexpected, novel and experimental kind of project, the director returns with a bang, walking on his own invented path, breaking all the pre-existing molds of film-making in India. His latest may or may not get instant appreciation from the common man, but will undoubtedly be remembered as an important breakthrough in Indian Cinema and its thought process on the medium.

First of all, don't go for this movie, simply expecting many over the top, sexual sequences showing the skin, as suggested by its title. As a matter of fact, if you are just there in the theater, to watch a sex-movie then you are going to be disappointed a lot. Because this is not merely a sensational piece of work, trying to cash on its title and sex scenes. On the contrary LSD is a thought provoking film, which forces you to think about whether there still exists any private life in this fast progressing technical world around us? The movie basically showcases three distinct youthful stories, which have the important ingredients of love, passion, greed and lust in different dosages. All the three, are related to each other in a peculiar way, quite similar to the movies of the world renowned director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel fame. However, Dibaker shows the interconnection between the 3, only towards their respective ends which actually provides another surprise element into the narration and works to a great extent. As far as camera-work is concerned, he also seems to be inspired from the recent Hit project shot on handy cam called "Paranormal Activity".

Content wise, once again the director indicates his immense liking towards subjects inspired from the real life incidents. The movie is full of cases which you may have heard or seen on the net in the recent past. There are clear references of real life episodes such as Miss Merrut's sting operation, MMS clips of a newly-wed, Sex clips of a young couple in a store and a Hip-Hop singer speaking Punjabi and getting involved in the case of casting couch. In fact Dibaker Bannerjee has got an unmatchable skill of using the real life news clips in his projects. And this is a proved fact, taking into account, both his previous movies which were highly inspired from real life facts and characters. However, his films might not always be a pleasant experience to watch with the entire family due to his overuse of abusive language and inclusion of highly suggestive sexual scenes in the scripts.

Besides this, the other exclusive master touch possessed by the director is the way he uses Punjabi language in his dialogues and also names of famous places of Delhi in his sequences. For instance just notice the way, the morning shift store girl (in the second story) speaks her dialogues with a distinctive Delhi Punjabi accent. It clearly shows the strong influence of Delhi and its friendly punjabi life style on Dibaker. Frankly speaking, I can easily vouch that till date the most authentic portrayal of the city Delhi and its life style can easily be found in all the three movies coming from the talented director in the recent years.

Coming to the technical aspects of the movie, Yes, the camera is shaking, the images get blurred and there is a substantial use of night vision. But these all concern you only for a few initial moments and that's it. After the first few scenes, the subject takes you in and you simply forget about all the technical hitches coming on the screen at regular intervals. Especially the opening titles of the movie explain it all and help in building up the right mood for the movie's novel concept and treatment.

Cinematography is simply superb, very realistic and leaves such an impact that at times you don't even remember you are watching a movie in the theater. Particularly the use of Handy cams, security cameras and spy cameras is really commendable. Editing is fast, crisp and very close to the real life movement we all witness in our daily lives. Musically, the title track is very catchy and already popular in the youth. Another song of the movie, which had very vulgar lyrics, could not make it to the screen due to the strict censorship. But strangely, it is openly discussed by the characters in the third story. Also the creative artwork of the movie deserves a special mention as it highly innovative and suggestive. The film consists of all new talents who are able to impress and never ever show the signs of their first project on screen. Everyone just looks like his or her character in the script and their collectively effort is a real treat to watch.

The ruling queen of the small screen, Ekta Kapoor has made a very noticeable debut in the genre of experimental cinema, which will surely bring her both profits and appreciation together. And what to say about the director, Dibaker Bannerjee! He won millions of hearts with his first two movies and now once again delivers a worth watching & path breaking project consistently. Unarguably, he is one of the most talented and innovative directors of our times who can ensure you serious content along with his own stamp of comedy and satire.

In simple words, if you eat, live & drink cinema then you are sure going to love this great piece of art. And for all other friends, who only watch movies as just another form of entertainment, you may or may not like it…..but you will not be able to neglect it.

It is easy to review a movie; they say. In many ways it is. We go for movies, we feel inspired, awed, touched, redeemed etc. Our plethora of the abstract is bolstered by the very existence of the notion that beyond our daily weariness there is a world of cinema, where people make movies and we can be entertained.

Then there are those who are part of the 'Divulge' process. This would only happen if you have every attempted to catch something on camera; not accidentally but intentionally. Staged it; you framed it, cut it & displayed it. We so called Movie Buffs love criticizing the effort and all that the Film Maker wasn't able to accomplish in comparison to the IMDb Top Ranked Movies.

I once had an interview at RGV factory to work as an unpaid intern; which I had to decline due to academics. Then, I remember boasting to my interviewer of my ability to take a scene and give him at least seven different ways of shooting it. We all are self made maestros in some way or the other. Movies being something we relate to, we are sure we could've done a better job.

Today I saw a movie called Love, Sex & Dhoka. Today I do not need to talk about Tarantino, Kubrick or Goddard. Today, I want to talk about Dibakar Banerjee. A director who has taken Indian movies to a pedestal where neither European Maestros, Spanish Cinematographers, Iranian Script Writers or British Actors could go.

He nailed his script with Khosla ka Ghosla. He nailed his screenplay in Oye Lucky Oye. Now he nails his content with LSD. The movie is cinema at its best. It tells us that we do not need exploding cars or flaming superstars to make good movies. We need brilliant performances; and this movie has the best I have seen.

I was almost in tears in the start, I laughed at every joke of the movie, the thrills were superlative, the dialogues were a level above Pulp Fiction, the flow was gripping and the movie is without doubt the best movie I have seen in a long time. It is bold as Da Vinci, dark as a Grimm Fable, as real as the summer sun and as detailed as a Wordsworth poem about majestic beats worked upon in the workshops of the abyss.

Many would question my perspective on the movie but those who know me well would have guessed by now I do not want to reveal anything. But I ask you to go watch it; see what goes into a movie when all you have is the will to entertain, inspire, awe, bevel the audience with humour, strike the emotions with subtle romance and most of all give us a glimpse of film making that would certainly go down in history as a continuation of the legacy that compounds all the talent, previously baptized as Ray, Kurusawa, Kubrick and at least for this movie – this moment Dibakar Banerjee.

My rating 4.5 stars out of 5.

When Johnny Gaddar came out three years ago I had got a feeling that Indian Cinema is beginning to come of age. It was executing scripts which were never written before. Soon scripts like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Gulaal, Dev D, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Rock on!, Ishqiya, Taare Zameen Par, Black Friday etc had the cake of Indian Cinema nicely baked. Love, Sex Aur Dhokha is almost like an icing on that cake. You can safely say Indian Cinema has come of age and is never gonna look back to the Star system (read Khan System) and the Yash – Barjatya house of melodrama. Even if that will continue to sell more is irrespective.

Still let me point out LSD is not an original its style and premise is copied from Adam Rifkins Look.

Nevertheless, Whats the fuss ? Unfortunately I cannot reveal how LSD unrolls itself and I would suggest you go into the theater expecting nothing. Please do not read any reviews from any national dailies critics they just end up revealing just too much.

So whats the bottom line: Dibakar Banerjee undertakes a biting satire study of the growing fascination of the Indian Middle class with the camera whether it is the MMS scandals, or the umpteen sting operations. Just Like OLLO he takes a heavy dig at the media, the mentality of the Indian middle class and even our fascination with sting operations and voyeur sex.

The beauty of the film lies in the fact that it is actually shot in the first person point of view. Through your web cams, through your hand held, through your Security cams etc.

It must have been difficult to shoot like that but it must have been even more difficult to get the emotions of the characters on screen through to the audience when there are no dramatic camera angles, no mid shot and no extreme close up to shoot. Dibakar however manages the perfect mix of these shots using in most cases a still camera. You feel heavily for his motley crew of characters as they feel happy or totally disoriented in the emotionally heavy (read shocking) script.

That's where the most superlative cast I have ever seen comes on screen. At times you get the feeling Dibakar might have just let them play themselves and left his handy cam on. I don't remember any name but each of them are plain brilliant there's is just no other adjective to describe them.

There is also the most perfect concoction of Humour, Romance, Mind Numbing Violence, Biting satire, strong emotion and sex in the script. To top it Dibakar just refuses to switch off the camera even when you are cringing for the visual to stop. Once the camera's REC button is switched on you better be ready to sit through everything!!

And of course for Delhi lovers lets make no mistake, the typical Delhi characters which is trademark Dibakar with their "Behenchods" and "Oye Haan Jee Haan" are all back with the kick ass Bhangra score

Watch out for the Typical Delhi Office store clerk in the Sex episode who goes with sentences like "Waah Waah Badi Nehru Market Lag Rahi Hai"

Final Verdict : Go watch it and remember this is where Indian Cinema has finally caught up with its international counterparts.

Special Mention for the Item number " I cant hold it any longer" . Just pay attention to the lyrics and the chorus which actually goes "FO… FO… FO… FO"

I would have given it a 10/10 but for the fact that it is copied from LOOK.