Hate Story Is A Waste Story!

Vivek Agnihotri had gone blue in the face claiming that his latest film Hate Story is an erotic thriller, but the film has a very yawn inducing erotica and no thrills to speak of, as such. Paoli Dam's Bollywood debut, which also stars Nikhil Dwivedi and Gulshan Devaiyah, proves to be a bitter disappointment…

Kavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) is a newspaper reporter who meets her sources at fancy clubs, where they proceed to exchange information with such secrecy that one would be forgiven for suspecting that Kavya might be a secret agent for some intelligence agency. Aided by her friend cum confidant Vicky (Nikhil Dwivedi), Kavya runs a sting operation on a corrupt judge, which results in hurting the reputation of a major cement company, run by Siddharth Dhanrajgir (Gulshan Devaiyah), an amoral young business tycoon who starts stammering nervously when confronted by his father. Resolving to avenge the incident, Siddharth offers Kavya a lucrative job in his company and seduces her before unceremoniously dumping her and firing her from her new job.

When Kavya discovers that she is pregnant from Siddharth's child and threatens to slam the latter with a paternity suit, Siddharth has her kidnapped by goons, who make doctors perform an illegal abortion on her and another medical procedure to ensure that she never becomes a mother again.

Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned, they say and Kavya sets off to seek vengeance by learning the 'tricks of the trade' from a high profile call girl, so that she can use sex to eventually ruin Dhanrajgir. What follows is a roller coaster ride of sex and corporate espionage till finally, Kavya manages to ruin Siddharth and have him arrested for corporate fraud before meeting her own end at the hands of a jealous wife.

Since the very start of the movie, lack of logic seems to be the name of the game. Super reporter Kavya, who is shown as quite passionate about uncovering the truth, agrees to become a corporate lackey without much hesitation (why does a business tycoon employ a journalist to become his business analyst is anybody's guess). The scene where Siddharth seduces Kavya too is badly written. In all honesty, one would feel that it is Kavya who is throwing herself at him (which employee, while clad in a bathrobe, hugs her boss fondly at being told that 'they have landed the contract' and gets in bed with him the very same night after a dinner and dance routine??) Moreover, after the illegal abortion, instead of trying to seek help from the authorities first, Kavya immediately decides to approach a sleazy brothel to demand that she be trained in the art of 'having sex with someone she does not love'.

Paoli Dam, who plays the female lead Kavya, is not only an ineffective actor but also falls short of the whole 'femme fatale' image and it is hard to imagine why every man in the movie lusts for her to the point of losing his power of independent thinking. One does not understand why it is necessary for Kavya to speak every line in a husky come hither whisper even when the situation does not demand it.

Nikhil Dwivedi, who plays Vicky, seems to have nothing better to do than wag his tail faithfully (figuratively speaking, of course) whenever Kavya snaps her fingers. Last but not the least; it is a pity to see a fine actor like Gulshan Devaiyah in the movie. Though an antagonist, Gulshan's Siddharth is not menacing at all and on the contrary, comes across as a 'poor little rich boy', who suddenly transforms from a stammering scion into a snarling bad guy without any conviction. Mohan Kapoor as a corrupt politician too seems wasted.

In conclusion, apart from a few sex scenes, which might excite a certain class of movie-goer, Hate Story does not have anything palatable to offer…