Quirky camera makes this a really dizzy trip

Quirky camera makes this a really dizzy trip

Love, Sex Aur Dhoka
Cast: Anshuman Jha, Shruti, Raj Kumar Yadav, Neha Chauhan, Arya Devdutta, Henry Tangri, Amit Sial
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Rating: ****

Love, Sex Aur Dhokha is quirky, crazy, fun and contains scenes that have cult quality. This film will be discussed a lot and will become a reference point for the few clones that are sure to follow. But LSD is a film that is more enjoyable than it is memorable. Parts of it sparkle real bright and carry the rest of the film which, though not bad, isn’t great or new cinema.

LSD’s story is in three interconnected segments and it is good that of the three – love, sex and dhokha — the best one comes right at the beginning. This is the story of Rahul (Anshuman Jha) who is studying to be a director and auditioning actors for his diploma film — Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna. Shruti (Shruti) comes to audition, is given the lead role and Rahul and Shruti fall in love. Shruti’s father is not keen on this acting business so Rahul goes to convince him and this leads to some of the most hysterical scenes in the film. Father is offered the role of Shruti’s screen father, he demands an item number in the film. Think Bhojpuri films. Shruti’s marriage is fixed with a Canada boy, but love birds elope and it all ends in a tragedy.

The second story is set in a department store where CCTV cameras have just been installed. There’s a guard, two floor girls and two boys who watch camera footage in a backroom. One of the boys, Adarsh (Raj Kumar Yadav), owes money to some rather unpleasant people. Other boy suggests a sex video. Adarsh tries his luck with the morning shift girl and then the night shift girl, Rashmi (Neha Chauhan). Yes, there’s eventually a sex scene that is raw and has “amateur porn” quality to it. It works but is certainly not the “boldest scene” in Bollywood. Eventually there’s an MMS and sadness.

In the department store, reporter Prabhat (Amit Sial) is shot at. We meet him in the third segment. He rescues Naina (Arya Devdutta) who wants to do a music video with Loki Local (Henry Tangri), the king of pop. Think a thinner, more hygienic Mika. Prabhat works for a television news channel that runs on stings. He asks Naina to go to Loki and get him to ask her to f**k him for a video, on hidden camera. One sting follows another, and then there’s a music video. LSD is a technical feat. No doubt. It picks stories and scenes that are compatible and entirely believable in the shaky, home-video footage that the film is shot in. But however much I enjoyed the movie, I’m unable to muster euphoria. LSD is clever and funny, but it also left me a little dissatisfied, even disappointed. The first story is first-rate. Its characters are adorable and have superb, spontaneous lines.

The second and third segments work, but only as spoofs. These stories are jaded and the characters are more like caricatures. The trick to show a thigh here, a bra there, works. A bit like peeping through a crack in the window. In a line then: If it wasn’t for the gimmicky camera work and smart dialogues, LSD would have been a mediocre film. A round of applause for director Dibakar Banerjee’s hattrick. Khosla ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and now this.