The brilliance isn’t lost on the audience when a B-grade actress is made to scream on screen, by an offscreen pinch on the thighs by the director. Something untouched so far in Bollywood and something which couldn’t have been better treated – Ashim Ahulwalia has done a remarkable job even though I wouldn’t recommend this movie for everyone, because of the sexism and the sultry slutty provocations. This is one of those movies which can be shown to students in a film making class.
The story only kicks in the second half and just when it is about to mature into something truly great, Ahluwalia pulls the rug from under your feet and just ends the story, not the film, which continues with a long and indulgent existential slog through the eyes of Sonu. The movie delves into the creation of these third class films, which were in rave demands during late 80’s and early 2000 and exposes a shocking reality tied for a long time.
STARRING
Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Niharika Singh
Miss Lovely (IMDb | Wikipedia) OVERVIEW
Miss Lovely is a 2012 Indian drama film directed by Ashim Ahluwalia and set in the criminal depths of Mumbai’s C-grade (horror and porn film) industry.
MOVIE TRAILER
REVIEW
STORY
A typical lower middle class bloke Sonu Duggal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) arrives in Bombay and finds some footing when his B-grade filmmaker brother Vicky (Anil George) offers him work in his cinema. A young and innocent girl named Pinky (Niharika Singh) shows up and in order to start an affair with her, Sonu promises her fame and money while the industry shows its dark side with both the main actors getting embroiled in lies and deceit and shame.
PERFORMANCE
Awesome direction. And probably one of the first movies in Bollywood, where the director will be appreciated by each and all. There are intentionally languid still shots of staircases, houses, foliage, telephones and buildings which isn’t needed, but apart from that- The lead actors have done a wonderful appreciable acting and really took the phrase, “to get in the shoes of the character”, quite seriously. the Ramsays, Harinam Singh, Gyanendra Chowdhary and their ilk had on India’s B-movie industry is amazingly captured in wild shots and the process of film making during those ears is told. Art to art style. You need to see this movie twice or thrice to get to the details which are just too many. The sets are filled with bizarre, scummy, pulpy people you never expect to meet in your life.Each person who has been credited in the movie has really done the work. The film constantly switches between genre pieces and is part hard-boiled film noir, part love story, part melodrama and part documentary. It has been compared to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express though, it has its own originality and why not?
Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Niharika singh are bloody good. They give you the creeps with their acting. Though the movie lacks a good ending or screenplay, it gets justified by the direction.
VERDICT
Watch the movie, alone. Its not a movie which you had risk to be interrupted with or caught in bad sex scenes importing violence with your sweetheart or family members. Watch Miss lovely for its novelty and the newest theme of Bollywood- Pulp Plays.
MOVIESDROP RATING: 2/5
 Review: An Experimental Arthouse On Making C-Grade Junk)
