Sunny Leone Commits Harakiri In Beimaan Love

Starring: Sunny Leone, Rajniesh Duggal

Directed by: Rajiv Chaudhuri

Movie Review: An unknown actor who plays an important character in this unintentional farce stares hard to Sunny Leone across the table in the boardroom.

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“What do you want from me?” she asks imperiously.

Well, what do men want from Sunny Leone? Not a dramatic performance as a leading lady for sure.  Bollywood filmmakers, tripping over each other to prove their fascination with all things imported, insist on casting this oomphy import in author-backed roles . Mistake. Big Mistake.

We saw Ms Leone make  a hash of Mastizaade and One Night Stand. Don’t laugh. She now does the legendary actress Sadhana’s role from the 1969 drama-thriller Inteqaam .In  the film that incidentally boasted of some incredible  music, Sadhana seduced a tycoon’s  drunken wayward son only to take revenge on the tycoon.

Rajniesh Duggal, playing  the more complex role in this laughably selfimportant piece of trashy cinema, actually attempts to make sense of  his selfdestructive character. He is an arrogant selfimportant egocentric Casanova who thinks every woman he wants in bed will oblige. Then , he falls in love, and cracks.

This is where the plot caves in completely. Unable to handle the complexities of a drama where the disgruntled become the perpetrators of  wrongdoing, Beimaan Love is like a tune written over lyrics that never made sense to anyone, not even the ‘poet’ who wrote it. The film, if we may call it that for the want of a better description, is filled with ridiculousdialogues and situations that desire to make the heroine look sympathetic when in fact, she is , for the want of a better word,a bitch.

Leone plays Sunaina , a ruthlessly ambitious woman who infiltrates a tycoon’s organization and usurps him of everything ,besotted son included. Just how a  character so inured in scheming and selfinterest can be endowed with empathetic shades is a miracle that this film’s writers try to achieve.They are braver than us the viewers .

While they think of ways to make Sunaiya look saintly—and that includes a mother with a past who commits suicide –the situations in the plot and the dialogues get progressively absurd.

In one sequence Rajniesh sends carnations to Leone on her birthday.

“Are they for me?” she asks.

No, they are for the people  who thought of making yet another Sunny-centric revenge saga that looks , sounds and smells so ancient,you can actually hear the wheels of time turning in the background. The bungalow that serves as Duggal’s mansion is one where innumerable Hindi films were shot in the 1990s.

Then there is the girl who plays Rajniesh’s fiancée. A girl with the morals of  an alley-cat being thrust upon him for business purposes. There is apocalyptic moment in a hotel room where Rajniesh sees his fiancée copulating with a stranger. Instead of  acting shocked,Rajniesh smirks.

Our feelings, exactly.

This isn’t nostalgia. It is plainly lazy filmmaking. Barring Duggal every performer is  a hoot. The boobyprize for the most ludicrous performance of the century goes to Daniel Weber who plays Ms Leone’s not-so-secret admirer . Having seen Mr Weber perform with his real-life wife in several films I can tell you this much. This time he is stiff in all the wrong places.

Poor Sunny Leone. There has to be quicker less painful ways of committing professionalhara-kiri.