Dibakar Banerjee goes bold with ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ (IANS Preview)

NEW DELHI - After having earned critical acclaim for “Khosla Ka Ghosla” and “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!”, director Dibakar Banerjee maps a new terrain with his bold film “Love, Sex Aur Dhokha” (LSD), which highlights voyeurism in society.

A digital film with a hidden camera playing a character by itself, “Love, Sex Aur Dhokha” features a bunch of newcomers with no mainstream trappings to it, but sex and voyeurism constitute a major driving force of the narrative. The movie releases Friday.

“Voyeurism is what the whole society finds itself trapped in and this is the reality that I wish to bring through my film,” Banerjee had told IANS.

A co-production of Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Priya Sreedharan, it is a small-budget movie that will release across 350 screens in India. Unlike other Bollywood films, it won’t have an international release.

It stars debutants Anshuman Jha, Shruti, Raj Kumar Yadav, Neha Chauhan, Amit Sial, Arya and Herry Tangdi.

“We are not releasing ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ internationally because the recovery for small movies is not possible outside. We plan to take it to festivals instead,” Sunny Khanna, senior vice president of Balaji Motion Pictures, told IANS.

“Love, Sex Aur Dhokha” takes a look into three stories unfolding across and weaving through each other.

The first story goes like this - in a second rate film institute in north India, a final year student gears up for his diploma film. In pristine tackiness, with an amateur small town cast, Rahul starts etching out the themes of star-studded Bollywood love in his magnum opus and then falls in love with his heroine.

Somewhere in the same city, Adarsh, a tech savvy security camera agency executive installs four security cameras in a 24-hour departmental store with the idea of making a porn clip.

He starts to woo Rashmi, a simple salesgirl, when suddenly a shootout happens in the store and she saves a life. For the first time, Adarsh notices a woman in her.

In another corner of the city, Prabhat, a sting journalist teeters on the brink of total meltdown. Going through a divorce and about to be fired from his job, he attempts a series of failed suicides. And then he meets Naina, who is also trying to commit suicide.

Naina had been promised a music video by a reigning Bhangra Hip Hop star who slept with her in exchange for the offer, but the video finally went to a Russian blonde.

Prabhat and Naina come closer over a series of attempts to seduce, blackmail and threaten the hip hop star. They plan the final sting to catch the star on tape admitting his follies.

Despite its bold subject, Banerjee is not worried about the reaction of audiences and critics.

“If you don’t like the title and think that it may not have the content that would be appropriate for you, then don’t watch ‘Love, Sex Aur Dhokha’. I know there is an audience waiting for the film and it is that segment which wants to call a spade a spade. In any case, the film isn’t designed for those who wish to escape from the realities of life,” he said.

The music track of the album has also sparked controversy for its crude lyrics.