Review of Not A Love Story

It's not et al a bad story! It's a movie which will leave you mentally exhausted in the end. With “NOT A LOVE STORY” [NALS], RGV has once again raised his bar of film-making. Defining it, I would use the epithets like STUNNING, SHOCKING, SPINE-CHILLING and alike. It's not those one time watch movie. You just wish to get more and more out of the film. It’s one of those movies which is a complete package. Package of crime, violence, sex, passion, lust, intolerance, lack of perseverance and alike. And mind you, this is the genre for which RGV is best known for. This time RGV has assembled just the right kind of things he is known for. Classic actors [Deepak Dobriyal, Zakir Hussain and Mahie Gill], his favourite music director Sandeep Chowta and his best Cinamatographer i.e. himself.

Well the story of NALS is known to all. It's alleged [and it is] to be based on Neeraj Grover Murder Case. I won’t get into specifics. What makes NALS a milestone in Indian cinema is the very mature treatment it has received and the camera angles. I’ve followed RGV right from Rangeela till Rakth Charitra2. And what I’ve found is that he is one of those eccentric film-maker who works on his own terms. He is not someone who goes by what critics will say or what will be the fate of the movie at BO. And what I must also add is the fact that even in few of his worst project [like Go, Darna Zaroori Hai, Darna Manaa Hai, Road and Agyaat] there were always couple of things which makes him stand apart from his colleagues. The same goes for Sarkar Series, Satya and Company, though here they were evident from frame one.

NALS is not for weak hearts and for typical KJo fans. Mind you, you may vomit while watching this movie. It’s out and out made for real RGV fans. The dark theme of the movie, the fine detailing [like the constant ringing of RANGEELA as Anusha's ring tone signifying her dominant urge to be an actress], power-packed performances and spine-chilling visuals makes NALS a cult piece of cinema. I don’t think any of the earlier made film by any Indian film-maker had such huge amount of violence. Personally I haven't seen it. Watch it for it’s negative energy. Watch it for Deepak Dobriyal’s ‘performance’ [and not acting]. There are good actors. Then there are great actors. But then we’ve one more category. They are gifted actors. And Deepak Dobriyal is one of those greatly gifted actor. You can sense his "plight" from his eyes. And Mahie Gill. What can I say about this beauty with brains. She is at ease in every scene. Even in the scenes where she had to do lots of skin-show, she excelled. Even the others in the cast did a fine job. Prabhleen Sandhu looked cute. Zakir Hussain was once again at his subtle best. Ajay Gehi [remember the guy who played Uday Chopra in spoof movie called GHOOM] was effective too. Neil Bhoopalam and Darshan Jariwala did not had much of screen space though.
The background music is the main USP of this film. Like Bhoot, which would have been a disaster without it’s hair-raising background track, even NALS would not have had same impact. Check out this line written by a newcomer lyricist Vayu, Composed by Sandeep Chowta [one of my all time favourite] and Sung by Akriti Kakkar-
“Koi khud se bura nahin hota //
Pal toh kisi ka saga nahin hota.”

CBFC rating- A [and yes rightly rated, only adults]
Rating- 3.5*/5*
Why to watch it- to see RGV back in his true color after a while. And for Deepak Dobriyal.


P.S. I wish Ramu would have kept the original version of Rangeela in Asha Tai's voice but the remixed version too was fantastic. Sandeep Chowta rox!