Miss Lovely (Hindi) (2012)

For those who will walk into Miss Lovely expecting some flesh on display are going to be severely let down.  Those who walk in expecting a power packed movie because Nawazudding Siddiqui has a lead role are also going to be disappointed.  Those who walk in expecting an art house movie bordering on “art for art’s sake” will probably go back home fully satiated.

Miss Lovely is exactly that kind of a movie.  It is slow.  Really slow.  It isn’t a long movie at 110 minutes and yet there are times you will look at your watch either in the hope of an interval or the end of the movie – both halfs are equally slow.  If it picks some kind of pace, it would probably be in the final 3 minutes.  By then, the average audience would have run out of patience.

But, all of this at no point of time takes credit away from Ashim Ahluwalia who delves into the depths of B Grade horror / sleaze cinema that a few us who are as old as this author would have been exposed to.  Remember the likes of Veerana and Purana Mandir from the Ramsay brothers? They have been replaced here by the Duggal Brothers – Vicki (Anil George) and Sonu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

The film gives us a low down of how the business was run in the late eighties.  The monopoly of distributors, how the “stars” make their way into the business and how they fade away into oblivion in the most wretched of all manners.  Sonu walks into the business run by his brother and eventually falls hook line and sinker for Pinky (Niharika Singh).

Miss Lovely pays so much attention to detail that it pains you to see the low points of the movie – or for that matter the glaring errors.  On one hand, you have Ambassador taxis and old Fiat cars and on the other you have street signs in the new blue, yellow, white format.  On one had you have old ads from the 80s playing on the radio on the other hand you have Kapil Dev and Arun Lal in the commentary box.

And lets not forget the long boring shots of RCF and the Godrej Oil Factory for no apparent reason – if there was one, I would like to know it.  Miss Lovely did make it to the UnCertain Regard selection @ Cannes 2012 but it comes as no surprise that it took nearly 2 years to release.  Some great casting and wonderful performances from the entire cast make it worth watching.  But if you aren’t into art cinema, avoid it.  6 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1685301273/?ref_=tt_ov_vi