The last Ram Gopal Verma (RGV) film that I watched was ... umm ... I don’t remember! Such has been the fall of this director who made films like Satya, Kaun (one of the best suspense films) that his films have become a laughing stock these days (RGV ki Aag, Agyaat etc.).
Not A Love Story (NALS) is based on the Neeraj Grover murder case that shocked Mumbai some years ago. So the story is nothing new; most of us already know it. The film, rather than showing gory details of the act (it does show, but not into too much details thankfully), tries to decipher the mentality of all the characters involved in the incidents AND succeeds to an extent, in my opinion.
The camera makes awkward jerks at times. People are saying that this is a new cinematography technique used to enhance the plot. I think of it more like using a handycam to make a film on a shoestring budget; they anyway probably had no option going by the box office fate of most of their films. Whatever the reason, the jerky camerawork works. After a long long time, RGV has actually ’directed’ a film.
The performances are good; however, the lead actor looks more like a maniac throughout the film that defeats the storyline. The director/writer wanted to show that the monster came out only during ’that’ moment, otherwise the 2 characters were normal human beings. But anyway, that’s me getting a bit finicky.
The climax is the best part of the film and it sums up the whole episode very well.
We don’t know if this is exactly what happened to the real life characters; but this is definitely an interesting take on a real life incident.
I am going to say "Yes" to the mandatory Mouthshut question "Would you recommend "Not A Love Story Movie" to a friend?" but I would recommend your own discretion before buying a ticket. I wold rather give it 2.5/5.0 but the mouthshut rating stars are integers :-)