Not A Love Story Movie Review: Dial RGV For Mediocre Murder

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In a twist that is more norm than exception, Ram Gopal Varma sets his sights on a gruesome slice of reality and invests it with his maverick touch for cinema with Not A Love Story. One factor, though, that might go against the Ram Gopal Varma helmed flick is the fact that the Neeraj Grover murder case has been dissected by the media to such an extent that there is no room for thrills as the viewer knows what's going to happen next…

Not A Love Story revolves around Anusha (Mahie Gill), a starry eyed girl from Chandigarh who lands in big, bad Mumbai to become an actress despite misgivings by her obsessive lover Robin Fernandez (Deepak Dobriyal). After a brief struggle and a mild flirtation with disillusionment on encountering lecherous men hinting at the casting couch, Anusha finally lands a role in a film through the efforts of a common friend Ashish (Ajay Gehl). A grateful Anusha allows a drunken Ashish to come upstairs to her room after a night of pub hopping and ends up giving in to his advances.

The next morning, Robin lands at her place without any advance notice and on seeing a naked Ashish walk out of her room, stabs him to death in a fit of jealous rage. As Anusha gets hysterical and the significance of his impulsive act dawns on Robin, the lovers decide to get rid of the body by chopping it in pieces and burning it in a remote area of Mumbai.

The worried friends of Ashish decide to approach the cops and Anusha tags along to dispel any suspicions. Inspector Mane (Zakir Hussain) quickly puts two and two together and arrests Anusha on charges of murder following which Robin too is apprehended for the murder of Ashish. It is also discovered then that Anusha had lied to Robin about being raped by Ashish which had provoked Robin to commit the murder.

As the court trial ensues, both the lawyers of Robin and Anusha try to save their own clients by making the other accused look bad, leading to a friction between the lovers till Anusha breaks down and reconciles with Robin, admitting that she was not raped and that her dreams of making it big as an actress caused the entire tragedy. The climax scene shows the two lovers being dragged away from each other with a ticker informing the viewers that the verdict is being awaited in the case.

True to form, Dobriyal plays his role of a loose cannon lover effectively, turning on the intensity in his eyes and body language to make the character believable. Mahie Gill on her part is passable too in her role as the small town girl with lofty dreams. Zakir Hussain's Inspector Mane who investigates the case is again a well-played role with Hussain effectively exuding an aura of righteous menace even when he is conducting a casual questioning.

Ajay Gehl does not have much to do and unfortunately, the late Rasika Joshi (one of the finest character actors in recent times) as Ashish's mother has a very small part to play in the movie; same with Darshan Jariwala, who plays a defence advocate. Another fact which is admirable is Varma's refusal to pass any judgement on the gruesome episode. Robin is not a bad guy per se (though one might find his feelings for Anusha obsessive and smothering) and Anusha is just like another girl in the city waiting for her dreams to come true.

On the flip side, the camera work is a bit shoddy with unnecessarily jerky camera movements even where it is not needed and the camera man's tendency to focus on Mahie's legs and cleavage in almost every scene involving her (the camera doesn't spare Mahie even in a scene where she is shown mopping the blood from the floor following the murder!)

Varma overdoes the Rangeela angle with the title track of the film playing everytime Mahie's phone rings and by the first half of the movie, the viewer starts wishing Gill could turn her phone on silent mode. Even the murder scene is not as chilling as it could have been made.

However, the performances of the actors and the fact that the movie is 'inspired' by a real life murder case that shook the city in 2008 does make the movie worth a watch.