Miss Lovely

Miss Lovely is not an easy movie. It's not a movie that will ever play at a hundred mutiplexes and draw large popcorn eating crowds. But it's a fantastic movie, a sweaty, fever-dream of a movie, and it's wonderful that people are engaging with it. There is simply nothing like it in Hindi cinema - and like it or not, that is one thing I'm sure no one can argue with.

Miss Lovely doesn't offer anything like a straight plot, and it has no real stars - save for the "discovery" of Nawaz Siddiqui (this film was his first lead role). He's great in it, as is another "discovery" Anil George (who plays the demanding elder brother with an intensity unseen before in Hindi cinema). For me however, the film belongs to Niharika Singh, who plays the mysterious 'Pinky'. On one level, she is a femme fatale of yore (like in a 1950's Noir film), on another she's a complete cipher, a blank slate. You can project anything you want on her and she absorbs it. This could be seen as insignificant characterization, but I saw it simply as a struggling character who exists in the shadows of the film industry, someone you know almost nothing about but around which most of the plot revolves - like an empty center. Her mix of coyness, intensity, disinterest, coldness & warmth is terrific and incredible subtle.

That said, this is one of my favorite films of the year so far, and I'm glad to see this kind of edgy, fearless filmmaking coming from India.

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.

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.

I saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival 2012 and was left speechless - this is a really hard-hitting, pulpy, gritty and rather radical take on the underground sleaze film industry in India in the 1980s. Like Sam Fuller & Dario Argento got together to remake an underground Bollywood film - and that doesn't even close to describing it. It vacillates between unscripted documentary and pulp thriller, creating a new hybrid style that is unlike anything I've seen before. If you're a fan of hard-boiled cinema with an experimental twist, I would strongly recommend this film. Beautifully photographed in classic cinema-scope with a mix of vintage film stocks. exceptional.