Hate Story Movie Review by Anupama Chopra

Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Cast: Paoli Dam, Gulshan Devaiah

Hate Story is being pitched as an erotic thriller but it’s neither very thrilling or particularly erotic. But it does work as unintentional comedy. My favorite scene: the heroine, Kavya, an
investigative reporter played by Paoli Dam, has come to a prostitute for training. Kavya says that she wants to be the best in the business but doesn’t know how to make love to a man she doesn’t love. The prostitute gives her a masterclass. She says: Shake it, take it, fake it.

Kavya arrives at this sorry state of affairs because she conducts a sting operation on a major cement company. Which compels the company head, Siddharth Dhanrajgir played by Gulshan Devaiah, to go after her. He sleeps with her and then dumps her (leading to that other classic dialogue: I f*** with those who f*** with me). Before you know it, Kavya is training in the boudoir arts. She then proceeds on a seduce and destroy mission.At best, this material could have been a fun B-grade romp but director Vivek Agnihotri kills it with seriousness – in an interview he said: I wanted to film it in the manner of European cinema. So it’s all heavy breathing, gritty expressions, split screens, high-pitched music, which of course leads directly to laughter. Dam gets to wear gowns and pant with many men. Devaiah snarls and does his best psycho-with-father-issues expressions. But neither can help salvage Hate Story. The only thing this film does offer is the hope that our Censor Board is becoming more reasonable.So you might someday be able to see a film like The Social Network without the ‘asshole’ bleeped out.

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