I don’t know why I am even writing this review. I am so stunned by the fraud played by this movie that I need to express: This movie is no love, no sex, but only DHOKA.
Dhoka No. 1: It has been made to
believe that the video clippings in the movie are real, but they
are in fact acted upon and screen played. In the director’s own
words, “Imagine if I had taken known faces. The illusion of
hyper-reality would have broken at the first instance. Now when you
watch the film, you don’t know if the film is made by Dibakar
Banerjee or a compilation of clips taken from the cameras of the
three individuals.” (Source:
http://movies.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/mar/11/slide-show-1-interview-with-dibakar-banerjee.htm#contentTop)
Dhoka No. 2: The movie is an extremely low-budget one. Rough
estimates would put production cost at no more than Rs. 10 Lakhs
and the marketing cost at no more than Rs. 30 Lakhs. This movie is
surviving just on the strength of marketing: Almost every critic
has written a good review of the movie, and the word “sex” itself
has generated lots of curiosity. Basically, this movie is just
trying to play upon the vulnerability of the so-called intelligent
multiplex audience.
Dhoka No. 3: There is nothing unique about this movie. The first story is just another melodramatic TV serial of Ms. Ekta Kapoor: an idiot like the protagonist of the story would actually be an exception in the Indian Society. The second story is a poor pornography. The third story is completely unreal: no celebrity can get so much freedom to exploit newbies; they don’t have such kind of power; the power and the casting couch lie elsewhere; if at all, the celebrities just act as conduits.
Dhoka No. 4: An artificial attempt has been made to regularize infringement of privacy. The movie makers are trying to show that privacy is not a value so very much valued by individuals, and they are willing to shun it at the first available opportunity. This is the biggest dhoka of the movie. Individuals do value their own privacy because No Privacy means Slavery.
I hope this movie doesn’t recover its costs; else it will encourage others to defraud the audience similarly. ©2010-2015 Ankur Mutreja