‘Not A Love Story’ Hindi Movie Review

Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Not A Love Story’ finally releases this Friday and doesn’t fail to impress. The grim story is not your usual crime thrillers where the viewers keeps guessing who the killer is till the last scene neither is it a social drama where the lead protagonist fights for justice. The story is from the killer’s point of view. And it almost makes their crime look believable.

Based on a real life incident that took place in 2008 in Mumbai, the story is of a starlet called Anusha Chawla who lives alone in the big bad city of Mumbai and wants to make it big as an actress. The usual obstacles comes her way in the form of repeated rejection, casting couch etc. When she finally manages to get a role thanks to friendly casting director Ashish (Ajay Gehi) things take a turn of a different kind.

One fine day Anusha’s obsessive lover Robin (Deepak Dobriyal ) turns up at her pad only to find Ashish in a compromising position. In a fit rage, Robin stabs Ashish to death. To hide the heinous crime, the couple decide to chop off the dead body, pack it in bags and dispose it off in the jungles.

After several dismissal films, Ram Gopal Varma again comes back with a hard hitting crime of passion. His maverick style of shooting is evident in almost all frames. Closeups of actors, dark silhouettes are all there. The build up of the murder is very dull with Anusha going from one audition to the other. The film picks up the pace only after the murder takes place.

Fortunately for the viewers, the scenes where the body is chopped off is not shown. It is just merely suggested.

The drama continues post murder with police investigating the case and court room drama. The tale is not of a psychotic slasher, but a crime where the murder took place in a spur of the moment. No one is shown as the culprit and no one is really a victim.

Although the film is based on Neeraj Grover murder case, it does not show anything beyond what`s already known. In fact, RGV sticks to fiction and fictionalizes almost all the characters.

Both Deepak Dobriyal as the maverick Robin and Mahie Gill as starlet Anusha do justice to their role. Zakir Hussain, as the investigating officer pulls of the role with panache. Wonder why the brilliant actor is so underused in our hindi cinema. He delivers a brilliant performance as the cool cop.

Though few scenes in the film are too gritty and could be avoided, it is definitely worth a watch. And yes, it has the touch of a brilliant filmmaker who has given films like ‘Satya’, ‘Rangeela’ and ‘Shiva’ in the past.