The keepers of conscience of Indian culture, come and murder me. Because I am guilty. Guilty of watching ?Murder? yesterday and simply LOVING it ! Lemme be honest here. I watched it for curiosity value only. I wanted to see what all this fuss and brouhaha about Mallika Sherawat is all about. What?s with this femme fatale that the aunties, uncles, papas, mummys, directors, heroines, heroes, directors, politicians, celebrities are screaming ?Kill her ! Stone her ! Crucify her !? I expected a pornographic flick with Mallika doing the unthinkable and unmentionable. What did I see ? A sensitive movie about an ordinary looking married woman who strays, has an extramarital fling, realizes the futility of it and decides to give her marriage another chance. That is the story in a nutshell. The question is : So ? So what ? That?s happening all around us. It?s been happening since ages and will go on till infinity. I fail to see anything so shocking bizarre about that. The love-making scenes ? Hello ! If you are expecting an extramarital affair between two young adults, what do you think you are in for ? Do you really hope the director will show them running around trees with fifty extras in identical dress behind them dancing in perfect unison singing songs that go ?Pehla pyar hai, dil bekaraar hai? or something like that ? Obviously there will be passion. There may be scenes which may make you feel like changing the channel if kids are around. So, do that. I mean, go ahead and change the channel, sweetheart. Nobody is forcing you to sit and watch Mallika making love with her beau. Just like Mallika has made a choice to enact love-making without the headache of a body double (a la Manisha Koirala, the one who cried wolf), you have a choice too. So, please exert your choices and stop getting judgmental and mob-like. Mallika is fantastic as a woman who gets tempted in the forbidden waters of lust but upon sensing that her affair can create trouble in her marriage, shows admirable courage and dumps her lover. Bravo ! She shows a number of facets of a woman with remarkable ease : a supportive wife, a caring mother and a sensual lover. I simply loved the scene where her little son is waiting for her and she has forgotten her appointment as she is busy in an afternoon romp with her lover. Upon realizing her mistake, she goes running to her frightened son, hugs him tight and promises herself that she will never make her family suffer for her selfish pleasures. It was the most touching and honest scenes I have seen in Bollywood movies. This movie looks at women realistically. They are not goddesses, just human beings who make mistakes. The rest of the cast is great. Hashmi looks every inch of the scoundrel that he is enacting. Ashmit Patel is amazing. Very handsome, very sensible. Perfect casting ! What amazes me is the amount of ruckus and uproar being made about this movie and its heroine. We don?t hear a squeak from anyone if there is a scene where a woman is being brutally raped. That?s fine for everyone. But show a scene of consensual love-making between a man and a woman and then watch the uproar ! The crowd will go ballistic trying to stamp out the woman?s existence. Double standards, or should I say male standards ?