Could Write A Bad Romance

NOT A LOVE STORY (2011)

I have said this before and I will say it again - I am a big Ram Gopal Varma fan. His films have consistently showed up on my end-of-year lists. Sadly, Not A Love Story will not. This is one of those misfires that he brings out after every good movie or two. While I am a fan, I know his penchant for making giant pieces of turd. It isn't as bad as Agyaat (2009) but it is as indulgent as Nishabd (2007). Sometimes Mr. Varma finds these stories with enormous potential. The premise itself is interesting. Not A Love Story is another such premise. But Varma fails to bring out the good stuff. You see it near the end the end, flashes of it. As soon as the court case heats up, you think "Now we are getting somewhere, now all that makes sense". But that's it. Poof. Nothing more.

I'm sure Varma believes that these stories are unique. But he isn't aware that it's not enough. A good premise does not equal to a good movie. An older man with a younger woman -  sure it's interesting. But what next? We don't go to the theater to see what story you pick to tell, we want to see how you tell it and whether it has something to say (and I don't mean, a message). Sure we know the kind of stories RGV chooses, they are evidently not opulent romances like that of Karan Johar, but this anti-Bollywood romantic masala film is just a not a good movie. This seems more like an indulgent stunt of an attention-seeking crybaby than an innovative filmmaker using his gift of storytelling. Varma wants to be the latter but the want seems like a desperate attempt to stand out.

Not A Love Story is about Anusha Chawla (Mahie Gill), a wannabe actress. Her boyfriend Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) is head over heels in love with her. She cheats on him. A murder is committed out of impulse. The rest of the story is inconsistent both in their loyalty towards each other and their actions as criminals. Varma throws in all the ingredients of a dark film in one - Murder, Lies, Deceit, Adultery, Paranoia, Obsession and Guilt. But we are told what they share is true love. If Mr. Varma truly believes this is love, I would like to stop him right here and give him a slap on each cheek. I'd also like to politely ask him to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film before he tries to make another film about a murder. Movies about murders do no need to rely on cheap sensationalism. Every Hitchcock film you see has another story to tell. The murder either begins the story, splits the story or ends it. Sometimes more than two of those cases happen in one film. But there is something else that the audience takes back, the emotional core. Here there is absolutely none. The cheeky genius/ bastard that Hitchcock was, he would sometimes makes the viewer side with the criminals, without us realizing it. For just a second sometimes, but you wouldn't be aware of the fact that you have indeed been rooting for the murderer. This was pure film craft at work. I'm sure Varma wants us to do the same but he doesn't even come close, by way of craft or story. Mahie Gill cried annoyingly throughout the movie and Deepak Dobriyal's eyes needed to stop popping for at least a microsecond. (Each of these actors earn two slaps as well).

All in all, there is only one effective scene in the whole film and that is a nightmare sequence. I wish the film had continued like that and not come back to reality. Reality is boring anyway. If you like stories which just depict the events as they happened, if you take movies at face value, then this film is for you. Although, in my humble opinion, this film fails even as straightforward storytelling. If you like to be shown something that makes you feel/ think, this isn't for you. I also liked the use of the song "Rangeela Re" from Ram Gopal Varma's own film (much better film that was), which was about a wannabe actress as well. But then it just became a bit too much. We get it, already!! Spoon-feed, much? This film is no Bonnie & Clyde (1967), now that is what you call path-breaking. All I can say is the film is aptly titled but not in the sharp-witted way Ram Gopal Varma intended. Not at all.

Rating: