Hate Story

Paoli Dam’s controversy before the release of Hate Story and the extreme emphasis on the sexual nature of the movie probably gave it enough impetus to go through the first weekend. The smart marketer probably thought that even if the movie bombs eventually, I may as well take advantage of the initial excitement created by a semi naked poster – believe me the corny one liner definitely did not create any impact whatsoever (He took her soul – now her body seeks revenge). And the smart marketer was right I guess. Hate Story was running quite full. At least on the Friday that it released.

But that does not at any time give any credence to Vivek Agnihotri who still sucks at directing. Yep. Apologies for the use of the word. But SUCKS is the operative word when it comes to Agnihotri. There is absolutely nothing that he does in Hate Story that tempts me to change my opinion of him. The part that I am trying to figure out is which movie was Hate Story copied from. Chocolate was Agnihotri’s first and it was a rip off of my favourite movie – Usual Suspects. His 2nd was Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal which was inspired by several Hollywood sports movies. So brownie points to someone who is able to tell me the inspiration for Hate Story. Would love to know it.

Paoli Dam is actually very confident on the screen. Why she has to resort to shedding clothes at the drop of a hat is beyond me. It is definitely an art – shedding clothes that is – an entire industry has spawned thanks to the same. Dam gives a reasonable performance but she does have a long way to go. The crowds are definitely going to love her because she is definitely the hottest actress to have hit the screen in a long time. The rest of the cast – if you do manage to see them – has no one worth mentioning with the exception of Gulshan Devaiah. Devaiah continues from where he left off in Shaitan. His performances in front of his father with his stammering is very good indeed. No one else comes close to worth a mention.

The story is good and adds to the list of disappointments in Bollywood because there is so much that could have been achieved. Instead it is relegated to a B Grade soft porn movie. Kaavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) is a journalist who gets a scandal involving Cementec Infra out in the open and therefore rubs its director Siddharth Dhanrajgir (Gulshan Devaiah) the wrong way. Sid is anyways on a weak wicket with his father to whom the 1000 crore ($200 million) business is just one of the small fish in his empire. He therefore resorts to ruining Kaavya by romancing her and then eventually dumping her when she is pregnant. What follows is a ping pong of stupidity where each person tries to get the better of the other. Watch it if you have nothing better to do. 4 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wyAIdYRTPg