''Not A Love Story'' is a 2011 Indian
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-language
crime thriller film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...
inspired by the murder of
Neeraj Grover in 2008 that led to the arrest of Emile Jerome Mathew and
Maria Susairaj. Starring
Mahie Gill
Rimpy Kaur "Mahie" Gill (born 19 December 1975) is an Indian actress, working in the Hindi and Punjabi film industries. She is best known for her role of ''Paro'' in Anurag Kashyap's critically acclaimed Hindi film '' Dev.D'', a modern take on ...
,
Deepak Dobriyal
Deepak Dobriyal (born 1 September 1975) is an Indian actor known for his work in several films and theatre productions. He is a recipient of several awards including a Filmfare Award and a Filmfare Award Marathi.
He has acted in films such as ...
and Ajay Gehi and directed by
Ram Gopal Varma
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.**
*
* Varma has dir ...
, the film was released on 19 August 2011. Ram Gopal Varma has announced that the film is not a biopic but is inspired by the case.
The film's shooting was completed in 20 days. One of the prime locations was the building Dheeraj Solitaire where Neeraj Grover was allegedly murdered in 2008.
Cast
*
Mahie Gill
Rimpy Kaur "Mahie" Gill (born 19 December 1975) is an Indian actress, working in the Hindi and Punjabi film industries. She is best known for her role of ''Paro'' in Anurag Kashyap's critically acclaimed Hindi film '' Dev.D'', a modern take on ...
as Anusha Chawla (based on
Maria Susairaj)
*
Deepak Dobriyal
Deepak Dobriyal (born 1 September 1975) is an Indian actor known for his work in several films and theatre productions. He is a recipient of several awards including a Filmfare Award and a Filmfare Award Marathi.
He has acted in films such as ...
as Robin Fernandes, Anusha's boyfriend (based on Lieutenant Emil Jerome Mathew, Maria's boyfriend)
* Ajay Gehi as Ashish Bhatnagar
*
Zakir Hussain as Inspector Mane
* Neil Bhoopalam as Prem
*
Darshan Jariwala
Darshan Jariwala (born 29 September 1958) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and stage. He won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Gandhi, My Father''. He is popular for his show in which he was seen ...
as Anusha's lawyer
* Ganesh Yadav as Robin's lawyer
*
Rasika Joshi
Rasika Joshi (12 September 1972 – 7 July 2011) was a Marathi cinema, Marathi and Hindi film actress. A Marathi theatre and Indian television actress, she was known for ''Maharashtrians, Maharashtrian'' roleplays in Bollywood films.
Career
She ...
as Ashish's mother
*
Prabhleen Sandhu
Prabhleen Sandhu is an Indian Punjabi film actress who rose to fame with the Indian soap on periodic freedom struggles on Colors' '' Mohe Rang De'' as Kranti, and role in Zee's show, '' Aapki Antara'' as Vidya, a middle-class wife, who has tr ...
as Anju
*
Urmila Matondkar
Urmila Matondkar (born 4 February 1974) is an Indian actress and politician. Known for her work primarily in Hindi cinema, Hindi films, in addition to Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, Marathi cinema, Marathi and Tamil cinema ...
as
Item number
In Indian cinema, an item number or special song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films ( Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu c ...
*
Mahesh Thakur
Mahesh Thakur is an Indian actor who has played roles in many films, TV serials and web series. He has authored a book titled I-Quotes which was published in early 2021 by Popular Prakashan. Filmography
Films
Television
Bibliography ...
as ad-film maker Sam in a guest role
* Sandesh Jadhav as Inspector Chavan
* Dimple Ghosh as Richa
* Rakesh Kukreti as Prashant
* Abhijeet Lahiri as Ashish's father
*
Nandita Puri as Anusha's mother
* Vandana Sajnani as Apeksha, Director
* Sushma Bhagwat as Robin's mother
* Ashok Awasthi as Robin's father
* Shankar Sachdev as Public Prosecutor
* Kamal Adip as Judge
* Rajesh Barsewal as watchman
* Sandeep Bose as Kishen, Producer
Plot
Standing at 5'6", Chandigarh-born Anusha Chawla bids adieu to her boyfriend, Robin Fernandes, and relocates to Mumbai to act in movies. Weeks later she manages to meet a filmmaker, Sam, who assures her of a lead role on the condition that she become intimate with him, but she walks away. She meets with more disappointment when a movie with Richa gets shelved. Disappointed, she nevertheless continues to audition - encouraged by her new friends, Anju and Prashant - while Robin urges her to return home. She then meets with Ashish Bhatnagar, who puts her on a shortlist, eventually gets approval, and signs her in a lead role. Both celebrate in a pub, get intoxicated, and end up in bed in her Malad flat. The next day, a delighted Robin, happy with her success, attends her residence to congratulate and surprise her, is enraged at Ashish, and kills him. He subsequently cuts the latter's body into small pieces, and the duo borrows Prashant's car, drives to an isolated spot in Dahisar, and burns it. Before returning home, Robin instructs her not to tell anyone that he is in Mumbai. Days later, Prashant, Anju, and she attend Malad Police Station and notify Inspector Mane that Ashish is missing. After obtaining statements from the trio, the police launch an investigation to try and locate Ashish. Eventually, Mane suspects Anusha, summons her, questions and tortures her, she confesses, and is arrested. Robin is also subsequently arrested and brought to Mumbai, and both are produced in court.
Music
#"Yayi Re Yayi Re, Hoja Rangeela Re" - Tarannum Mallik
#"Jab Se Mai Choti Thi" - Sandeep Patil, Dharmaraj Bhatt
#"Yayi Re Yayi Re, Hoja Rangeela Re" (Sad) - Tarannum Mallik
#"Jab Se Mai Choti Thi" (Sad) - Sandeep Patil, Dharmaraj Bhatt
#"Woh Ek Pal Chhina Kal" - Arijit Datta,
Neha Kakkar
Neha Kakkar Singh (; née Kakkar; born 6 June 1988) is an Indian singer. She is the younger sister of playback singers Tony Kakkar and Sonu Kakkar. She began performing at a very early age at religious events. In 2005, she participated in the ...
Reception
Critical response
The critics' response has been positive to mixed.
Taran Adarsh
Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media, as well as his reviews for Bollywood Hungama.
Career
Taran Adarsh started his journ ...
of
Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000.
The website provides n ...
gave 4 stars out of 5. Subhash K Jha gave 3.5 out of 5. Kaveree Bamzai of India Today gave 3 out of 5.
Zee News
Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language right-wing news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation.
The channel has been involved in several controve ...
gave 3 out of 5. Raja Sen of
Rediff
Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...
rated it 1.5 out of 5, saying that it is a film made in bad taste. Harish of Behindwoods rated it 2 out of 5 and said "Overall in the time of stylish filmmaking of no substance movies, RGV tries to differ but with such a wafer-thin but powerful plot-line, you expect the background music, editing and camera work to push it to greatness and that is where the movie falters."
Mayank Shekhar of the ''
Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...
'' said "it delves deeper into neither the young dream-chasers of a scary celeb industry nor chilling procedurals of an infamous police case", and rated it 2 out of 5.
CNN-IBN
CNN News18 is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides international coverage for the c ...
's
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand (born 13 March 1976) is an Indian film critic and journalist. He has worked for Noida based English language news channel CNN-Indian Broadcasting Network (CNN-IBN). He usually reviews Bollywood films and major Hollywood films rel ...
said "Not A Love Story' is not entirely unwatchable", rating it 2 out of 5, but asserted that it is the "most senseless movie made in Bollywood for a long time." Nupur Barua of fullhyd.com rated it 6/10 and said you can watch the movie if you can digest, visually, blood, gore, violent sex, and constant shaky camera movement.
[.]
See also
*
Neeraj Grover murder case
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Not A Love Story
Films directed by Ram Gopal Varma
Films set in Mumbai
2011 films
2011 crime thriller films
Indian crime thriller films
Indian erotic thriller films
2010s erotic thriller films
Hindi-language films based on actual events
Films scored by Sandeep Chowta
Indian films based on actual events
2010s Hindi-language films