Cameras are integral to our lives. They are no different from an eye - except that they record, remember perfectly, and allow us to playback. And hence they can become chroniclers, intruders, or spies.
As soon as a camera delves into the privacies of our lives, they catch a rawness of behavior which we are not even aware of.
Dibankar wants to catch those moments - the unplanned, the unmasked, the unhinged.
Three separate stories are told linearly, with touch points in each other. But they are tales on their own - spanning out respectively on a new director's camera, a shop's survelliance camera and finally on a spy cam.
The first part is predictable (couple in love, girl's father the foul-mouthed villian, and all the consequences) but comedic and visceral in its treatment. The final scenes shot in a "nightshot" mode, from the ground level, off-kilter, have a brutal impact.
But it is the second part which holds the film together and gives it its poignant heart. Seamless, beautifully written and immacualtey enacted, it is shot in a shop's survelliance camera. What starts as a seduction to create a MMS, slowly converts into jealous love - and then the circle turns. Truly a gem of story-telling.
The third part, shot as a spy camera for a sting camera, unravells as a sting operation of a compromised to-be-dancer by a famous pop singer. It is a sting story for a reporter and redemption for the girl. What is unexpected is the tenderness between both.
Dipankar writes in the vulnerability of a woman with heart-breaking authencity. And he creates atmosphere with authenticity. The camera is a vital accessory as it heightens the rawness of feelings. The dialogues are rugged, profane and often very funny.
Ah and the infamous sex scene? It is not a turn-on (it wasn't meant to be) and is full of grief as a consequence of its build-up.
And ultimately that is what makes this a fine film. It takes its making into the folds of its story, crazily heightening the tension, laying bare the layers of a man's compulsions, a woman's susceptibility, or the pathetic comedy of a cad.
LSD looks radical, but works so well, because it is truly old-fashioned in fashioning some fine stories.
~ Sunil Bhandari
19th March 2010
Sent on my BlackBerry
