MISS LOVELY

“Bollywood meets Boogie Nights.” - Hollywood Reporter

Ashim Ahluwalia (John and Jane) turns a planned documentary project into fiction with this unique specimen of Hindi-language filmmaking, neither definable as Bollywood nor traditional art cinema.

Set in the lower depths of Bombay's ‘C' grade film industry, Miss Lovely follows the devastating story of two brothers who produce sex horror movies in the mid-1980s. When one brother falls for a beautiful wannabe actress, their tenuous family relationship tears apart at the seams.

In his accomplished depiction of the Bollywood underground - an audacious cinema with wild cinemascope compositions, lurid art direction, rollicking background soundtracks and gut-wrenching melodrama - Ahluwalia uses colour-faded Kodak stock, era-specific styling and a queasy score of industrial drones, clanks and rumbles.

“We've had Bollywood and art cinema, two distinct movements. I would like to break those rules and mix genres, which really upsets the art crowd.” - Ashim Ahluwalia

D Ashim Ahluwalia P Shumona Goel, Sanjay Shah, Pinaki Chatterjee S Ashim Ahluwalia, Uttam Sirur WS Fortissimo Films L Hindi w/English subtitles TD DCP/2012