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Friday, May 17, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD HATE STORY
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***1/2
Meet the newest avatar of Maa Kali! The fascist avenging woman has always been a
favourite figure of fantasy fashioning for our films. Who can forget Nargis
gunning down her own son in Mehboob Khan`s Mother India?
The motivations for revenge in Hate Story are not quite the ones
that impelled the woman protagonist to rise up in arms in Mother
India or for that matter in Bhavna, a film directed by
Hate Story producer Vikram Bhatt`s father Pravin Bhatt, where
Shabana Azmi killed her own husband.
Really, who needs a gun to get even when you have sex?
Paoli doesn`t give a damn if her bare back or flesh flash across the screen. She
displays a healthy attitude of disdain for the camera, letting it swoop down on
her vulture style, never allowing her vengeful character`s erotic journey to get
sleazy, cheesy or lurid. The camera violates her character`s privacy with her
consent.
Hate Story is a tale that invites provocative measures of
counter-argument. When the protagonist Kaavya (Paoli Dam) gets down to revenge,
she spares no one, least of all herself. She announces she wants to be a sex
worker, and thereafter, there`s no looking back.
And quite a comely back it is.
Paoli`s Kaavya uses her physique to lure her enemy into her trap. Director Vivek
Agnihotri cuts into her journey of self-destructive vendetta like a knife.
The episodes sometimes stretch the limits of belief. But what the heck! No one
is making a statement here on the politically correct conduct of the Indian
woman.
In what can be regarded as one of the most defiantly unconventional debut
performances, Paoli lets herself go with the furious flow of her character`s
vendetta.
The episodes hammer into one another with scarce room to breathe. The pace is
dizzy most of the way. And when it slows down, you feel the protagonist`s
vendetta is losing its steam.
Steamy lovemaking scenes are strewn across the narrative`s stricken landscape.
The soundtrack suggests there`s an urgent tragedy nudging the erotic content.
The dialogues by Rohit Malhotra don`t shy away from telling it like it is.
Vikram Bhatt`s screenplay is Sidney Sheldon territory. It doesn`t shy away from
showing the heroine in an unflattering light. This is new-age cinema with no
room for conventional narrative devices or apologies for what the protagonist
sets out to do.
If in `The Dirty Picture`, Vidya Balan wore her sexuality on her sleeve, in
`Hate Story`, Paoli uses her sexuality like a favoured currency in the stock
market.
Mint-fresh and shock-proof, Paoli interprets her character with vigorous
conviction. As her adversary Gulshan Devaiah (so watchable in Shaitan
and That Girl In Yellow Boots) careens between rage and anguish
quite effortlessly.
Hate Story is not quite the tale of the simpering wronged woman
we`ve been seeing in our films since the time Adam impregnated Eve.
Hate Story pushes the envelope so hard, all the contents spill out
in a torrential tumble of tantalising power-play set within the world of
corporate battles and gender conflicts.
This is a most riveting and aesthetic saga of a woman`s revenge against the man
who`s wronged her since R.K. Nayyar`s Inteqaam -- except for the
fact that Paoli does things Sadhana in Nayyar`s film could have never imagined.
Director Vishal Pandya says that like the previous instalments of "Hate Story", its fourth part, which is "clearly" targeted towards an adult audience, has also received an 'A' certificate."Hate Story" as a brand serves the audience with an edgy content that is a mix of thriller, erotica and revenge.On the adult rating, Pandya said in a statement: "The film is clearly targeted towards an adult audience... not just erotica, but even the themes of the film with revenge as its central story."Read More
Ihana's 'kind of a narrator' role in ‘Nastik'Actress Ihana Dhillon, who is set to make her Bollywood debut with "Hate Story 4", says she is "kind of a narrator" in the Arjun Rampal-starrer "Nastik". Read More
Success Party of Movie Hate Story Photo Gallery