The controversy about "Ek Chhotisi Love Story" seems to overshadow the discussion about its quality. Many people thought the sex scenes are too daring. Others believed, the relationship between a 15 year old boy and a 26 year old woman is a very evil thing. I leave everyone his/her moral, but it seems rather strange in a country where marriages with minors are still being arranged. But ... that's somehow off topic.
I want to talk about the film, not morals. And sadly, there's not much good to report. The movie is lensed in a stylish low budget way. You get lots of monochrome colors and hand held camera appeal. That adds to the voyeuristic flavor since the plot revolves around Aditya (15) who is in love with a woman (26) he watches from his window. The first ten minutes have no dialogue. And no quality. The director tries to make us connect with Aditya by showing us exactly what he sees. By making us the voyeur. What works in theory, doesn't work here. Not at all. The woman didn't fascinate me. She bored me. And if that happens, one can not relate with the boy's feelings - and that's all the director wanted to achieve in the first place.
But it's not all lost. The second half, when the boy finally makes contact with the woman, is an improvement. Nice to see an actress (it's actually Manisha Koirala from "Dil Se") having a couple of kilos more than your average supermodel. And her scenes with the boy are interesting and daring - in a dialogue way. A lot of the more daring stuff is hinted at or talked about. Not seen. But "ECLS" doesn't know how to continue. Actually, it doesn't even know how to end. The little momentum the film gets when the two meet gets lost quickly and it ends boring. Thus leaving the viewer with a bad overall experience.
And now, what about the sex, huh? Much ado about nothing. Really, seriously. I was laughing when I saw the scenes. Not because they were bad, but because they were tame. Yes, they were rather daring for a traditional Bollywood movie, but come on! How could anyone get all angry about the movie because of those scenes? They don't even involve the boy. Not that they should - but I was truly shocked by the people who hear that someone heard that something bad was in some movie - and promptly start a riot. Why not invest that energy somewhere useful? Well, I'm digressing again. That's perhaps because "ECLS" is not really worth a lot of words. I appreciate that it's not conventional. But it's not good either. So it gets a
4/10