Ek Chhotisi Love Story

This less-spirited Krzysztof Kieslowski's movie, "A Short Film About Love", fails in so many accounts. This is a good example for film school students on how a movie could still fail in spite of having pretensions to the contrary.

The plot doesn't make any concessions to its setting and does not make any attempts to connect it to its Indian setting. Character development needs much to be desired and it drags on. Overall, the movie gives as much pleasure as a coitus interruptus. It doesn't quite start right, picks up a little steam in the middle and fizzles because the director doesn't know how to end it.

Nair tries to capture the obsession and disappointment of the boy from the original film but loses it by trying to dilute it to placate the Indian viewer. Unfortunately, this film is likely to disappoint its intended target, the educated urban Indian and Indian Diaspora and will never appeal to the average Indian movie-goer who cannot relate to the treatment.

Maneesha Koirala overacts and doesn't seem to get the nuances that her character should have. Aditya Seal is satisfactory. The rest of the cast appear like props without much to do.

If you have to see this movie, please stick to the original.

The controversy about "Ek Chhotisi Love Story" seems to overshadow the discussion about its quality. Many people thought the sex scenes are too daring. Others believed, the relationship between a 15 year old boy and a 26 year old woman is a very evil thing. I leave everyone his/her moral, but it seems rather strange in a country where marriages with minors are still being arranged. But ... that's somehow off topic.

I want to talk about the film, not morals. And sadly, there's not much good to report. The movie is lensed in a stylish low budget way. You get lots of monochrome colors and hand held camera appeal. That adds to the voyeuristic flavor since the plot revolves around Aditya (15) who is in love with a woman (26) he watches from his window. The first ten minutes have no dialogue. And no quality. The director tries to make us connect with Aditya by showing us exactly what he sees. By making us the voyeur. What works in theory, doesn't work here. Not at all. The woman didn't fascinate me. She bored me. And if that happens, one can not relate with the boy's feelings - and that's all the director wanted to achieve in the first place.

But it's not all lost. The second half, when the boy finally makes contact with the woman, is an improvement. Nice to see an actress (it's actually Manisha Koirala from "Dil Se") having a couple of kilos more than your average supermodel. And her scenes with the boy are interesting and daring - in a dialogue way. A lot of the more daring stuff is hinted at or talked about. Not seen. But "ECLS" doesn't know how to continue. Actually, it doesn't even know how to end. The little momentum the film gets when the two meet gets lost quickly and it ends boring. Thus leaving the viewer with a bad overall experience.

And now, what about the sex, huh? Much ado about nothing. Really, seriously. I was laughing when I saw the scenes. Not because they were bad, but because they were tame. Yes, they were rather daring for a traditional Bollywood movie, but come on! How could anyone get all angry about the movie because of those scenes? They don't even involve the boy. Not that they should - but I was truly shocked by the people who hear that someone heard that something bad was in some movie - and promptly start a riot. Why not invest that energy somewhere useful? Well, I'm digressing again. That's perhaps because "ECLS" is not really worth a lot of words. I appreciate that it's not conventional. But it's not good either. So it gets a

4/10

This underlying plot and story had great potential and it was really curious to see how the director would handle such a complicated situation and what kind of psychology would be involved or if the boy really gets the girl? Unfortunately nothing is done and none of the emotional pain or complications are ever explored. The boys is portrayed as nothing more than a voyeur who spies on the woman. His intents seem more sexual than anything else. The woman doesn't handle the kid in a rather expected complicated fashion but eventually ends up taking him in, overacting all the way. Yeah right. The media made a lot of noise about this movie's censorship but it doesn't have any real explicit sexual content. In the end, it seems that someone got a good idea but did'nt know how to proceed.

This is one of the worst Bollywood films ever made. It tells the sickening story of a 15 year old boy who loves a 26 year old women. Its weird, cos the boy is just so annoying and looks stupid. He spends long hours just spying on her with his telescope. Thats right, 50% of this movie, is the boy spying on her. Who is this film aimed at and what kind of people will enjoy this kind of trap. Its like gazing at a security camera hidden in someones room. With respect i would like to add that if the actress was beautiful and sexy, maybe the film would of had a reason to watch it. Manisha Koirala looks old, scruffy and ugly. There are little scenes of sex which is rare in Bollywood. Even these scenes were unsatisfying and turned me off. Manisha has made some of the most bizarre movies in Bollywood, Who knows why she chose this path. Some of these movies include Tum, Escape from Taliban and Market. The twist is even more disgraceful, where the boy stops looking at her and instead she starts spying on him. Rubbish acting from all actors in this movie, bad direction from Shashilal Nair. Do not watch this movie, a big waste of time.

This movie is an assault to the senses and an insult to intelligence. Crappy Bollywood thieves churn out senseless copies of foreign classics, sans all their dignity, artistic value and finesse. As if murdering Hollywood movies wasn't enough, they are now gleefully mutilating avant garde European filmmakers like Kieslowski and Antonioni. The less said about the actors the better. What else can you expect from mindless copycats? Bollywood stinks! They don't even have the decency to acknowledge the originals. With the amount of money at their disposal, Bollywood guys could have made better movies. At least they are financially much better off than their Iranian, Romanian and Turkish counterparts. But it is the the utter lack of imagination and creativity that afflicts the filmmakers in this part of the world. The exceptions to this (Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and a few other such people) have always been relegated to the periphery of the popular cinema circles of India. Truly unfortunate.