Miss Lovely

Miss Lovely will generally upset many people - for the simple reason that it sets up lots of genres/ premises - and unsuspectingly dumps them to move onto something entirely unexpected. As others have written, this is NOT the Indian boogie nights or whatever was imagined of it - it is, in essence, an experimental pulp film (if such a thing exists). This film is a deconstruction of genre (as i saw it anyway), and this becomes apparent when you see how it switches from noir/ thriller to romance film (part of the theme of the film itself) and takes documentary, porn, horror and musical in it's wide cinematic stride exploding/merging all of the above.

Clearly more than tell a straight story, director Ashim Ahluwalia is devoted to questioning, analyzing, critiquing and (at times) upsetting social & filmic conventions here.

Working outside of the 'Bollywood' industry, Ahluwalia explores a number of ideas rarely seen in Indian cinema: social outcasts as (tragically heroic) protagonists, uninhibited sexuality, changing roles of women in society and the critique of (or deconstruction of) social structures and assumptions. Sonu & Vicky Duggal clearly represent a new form of rebellion (they are clearly anti-state, anti-film industry, "criminal filmmakers" if you will), and therefore give domestic and international audiences a glimpse into lives that would otherwise likely escape cinematic exploration.

Having seen a fair amount of contemporary Indian cinema, Ahluwalia appears like one of the few true innovators within this nascent movement, and is - for this reason - one of its primary players, explaining interest from Cannes & Toronto.

Films like these provide an eye opening reality to college students, especially those pursuing Media related courses in colleges. I would love it if the makers offered us an opportunity to perform a case study on every aspect of this film. Being a film student myself, I always knew of Ashim Ahluwalia. However this film has given me a chance to understand why he is an idol to many aspirants like me. The film is brave, crazy and goes against the tide. This sends out a strong message to all those who are clueless about the importance of emotions and humanity in an era where money has an edge over anything and everything. I for one am really happy that a film like Miss Lovely can be made and released. It offers hope to a lot of film students and younger filmmakers that something else other than the usual masala fare is possible.

a throwback to the days when love in the movies involved the mind as well as the heart. this film is such a truly unique mix of something that feels really old-fashioned (noir, classical love triangle, brotherly domestic drama) and yet extremely visionary and modern, almost postmodern. unique filmmaking from a director to watch.. i saw it at the Sitges festival in Spain. this forms an interesting double bill with a film i also recently saw - Peter Strikland's Berberian Sound Studio, set in the heyday of 1970s Italian horror cinema - although miss lovely makes berberian look like lite family entertainment in comparison!

In terms of comparisons - almost everyone has been invoked to try and describe miss lovely - PT Anderson (no, it's not boogie nights), twitchfilm even mentions that miss lovely is reminiscent of The Day of the Locust (perhaps - more the novel than the film), and mentions Brian de Palma. not quite. I've seen comparisons with Dario Argento, Von Stroheim.. What's interesting is that it's almost impossible to compare this movie with anything else in cinema - that's what makes it so unique and electrifying for me personally. It's just wholly individual and special. recommended!

A lot better than any other genre of this movie. If you can portray so much reality in a movie, then the movie maker is really outstanding. Reality in looks, in language, in expressions, in problems and their solutions. Reality can be more felt when someone is really from these regions of the world.

The kind of tension and awkwardness that is shown can be generally felt in these regions.

Most importantly I liked the posters of the film. They are like I am seeing the covers of 60s and 70s...

I was first alerted of this movie by the sheer waves it was making in the Cannes Film Festival, and for the very obvious reason that it featured the hugely talented maverick director, Ashim Ahluwalia, but after they won the award i was not surprised with the results.

Watched this at Cannes and early reviews were initially confused, almost dissuading me from checking it out and sometimes positioning it as a Boogie Nights style American film, other times describing it as Wong Kar Wai-like. IT IS NOT ANY OF THE ABOVE! It's expressionistic, strange, captivating, surreal, eccentric and one of the more beautifully designed movies in recent memory, specially if 1980s Asian pulp & auteur cinema appeals to you as it does me. Its fragmentary plot is uncompromising, yet deeply rewarding as a complex genre movie makes way for a much more poetic take on what it means to be trapped in a claustrophobic economic/ social world with no way out. Feels like a marriage between von sternberg and andrei zulawski (kind of)..def art house, though. The narrative is just straight enough to follow whilst being daring enough to baffle - many feel that the character of Pinky, the dream-girl that drives much of the film is too opaque, but for me she felt just right - a kind of mona lisa of the bombay underground. highly worth checking out.