'Not A Love Story' Review: Beware! It Haunts You

Film: Not A Love Story
Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Bohra International Productions
Cast: Mahie Gill, Deepak Dobriyal, Ajay Gehi
Music: Sandeep Chowta
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producers: Sunil Bohra, Shailesh R Singh
Release Date: August 19, 2011

Ram Gopal Varma who is currently in Mumbai has churned out another flick which grabbed enough headlines before release.

Story
Anusha (Mahie) is an aspiring actress and she comes to Mumbai in search of film offers. She has an obsessive boyfriend Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) in her hometown. After the initial struggle, she manages to get a break with the help of Ashish Bhatnagar (Ajay Gehi).

Soon, Anusha and Ashish become friends. One evening, after a party both return and a sequence of events leads Ashish to stay at Anusha’s place. In this process, both get intimate. The next morning Robin lands at the door to give a surprise but sees the situation at Anusha’s flat. In a fit of rage, he kills Ashish.

Now, both Anusha and Robin decide to cover up the murder. Meanwhile, the police intervene and comes inspector Pande (Zakir Hussain). Whether the lovers are successful in covering their act or not forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Deepak Dobriyal is the apt choice for portraying the role of an obsessed lover. Though there are those occasional eye poppings from him, he comes up with an intense performance.

Mahie Gill was fabulous. She was sexy, she was beautiful, she was emotional and she was expressive in agony. Part of the credit goes to the director for extracting the best out of her.

Zakir Hussain was excellent, his cold stares and mean expressions make him fit the bill of the cop in the right way. He deserves more opportunities and challenging roles.

Ajay Gehi was upto the mark. Neil Bhoopalam was there to fill the screen. Darshan Jariwala was decent. Ganesh Yadav was neat. The others did their bit as required and added value.

Highlights

• Cinematography and the camera angles
• Second half
• Mahie Gill’s sex appeal and performance
• Narrative

Drawbacks

• Cult storyline, not suitable for all audiences
• Abrupt Ending

Analysis
Ram Gopal Varma is a man of unique ideals. True to his philosophy, though he titles the film as Not A Love Story, the very essence of the plot runs on the emotion of love though the act is gruesome. It is a pure Lust Story!

This film can be made in two different ways. Either in view point of Anusha or in view point of Robin. He has chosen the former way showing women in right light and men in dark light here. The actual truth is still skeptical.

While that is the content aspect, Ramu scores most of his marks as a technician and story teller. He didn’t venture into anything special and stuck to straight screenplay which is quite unusual. Though this is not a film of his standards, the brilliance of Ramu is seen in the taking and making. The film will have a greater impact if it is watched without any preconceived notions or the influence of hype.

However, given the genre of the film, this is something for select audience and hardcore RGV fans. At the box office, the film will surely gain profits due to its cost of making but acceptance from all forms of audience is ruled out.  Many may quip saying that it's a higher version of a Crime Watch TV program!!

Bottomline: It arrests you and haunts with wild dreams- BEWARE!!