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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Love You To Death Movie Review - Komal Nahta


A guy (Chandan Roy Sanyal) and his mother (Suhasini Mulay) plot to kill his wife (Yuki Ellias) who controls the purse strings at home. What happens next? Find out in the review of Love You To Death.


Business rating: 0.5 / 5 stars (Half star)


Star cast: Chandan Roy Sanyal, Yuki Ellias, Suhasini Mulay, Kallol Banerjee, Nicholas Brown, Sheeba Chadha.


What’s Good: The performances.


What’s Bad: The uninteresting script.


Verdict: Love You To Death will get a quick burial at the box-office.


Loo break: Several.


Watch or Not?: Watch it for the performances but beware of the fact that, as a whole, the film does not work.

Fat Mama Films’ Love You To Death is a Hinglish film about a rich girl and her family’s attempts to usurp her money.

Sonia (Yuki Ellias) is a rich girl, married to a businessman, Atul (Chandan Roy Sanyal). The couple lives with Atul’s mother, Sundari (Suhasini Mulay), and his father, Ravi (Kallol Banerjee). Atul and Suhasini try to influence Sonia to fund their business proposals but Sonia, who signs all the cheques at home and at work, has a mind of her own. She fawns over her dog and often consults with a tarot card reader, Maya (Sheeba Chadha), who helps Sonia with her personal problems.

Meanwhile, Atul is meeting a Russian arms businessman, with whom he wants to start a factory. For this, he needs Sonia’s money and her piece of land in Daman. To keep her tied in their marriage, he plans to conceive a child with her, but fails in doing so.

Atul and his mother are shocked when they discover that Sonia has decided to fund a fledgling solar energy business run by John (Nicholas Brown), a smart young man she had met at the veterinarian clinic. They decide to finish off Sonia before she can transfer the land to John. After a failed attempt to electrocute her at home, the mother-son duo hires a theatre person-cum-goon to do the job for it.

After that attempt also fails, they plot another murder plan. What happens then? Are they able to kill Sonia and get her money and land? Or does Sonia realise their true motives and fight back? Or does she realise that her husband needs to be supported? Is Atul’s father also a part of the evil designs of Atul and his mother? Or does he have nothing to do with them?


Love You To Death Review: Script Analysis

The story of Love You To Death is quite commonplace. The writers – Rafeeq Ellias, Abhro Banerjee, Yuki Ellias and Pallu Newatia – have tried to infuse the story with an eccentric set of characters. However, the story lacks substance for the most part. What’s more, the screenplay is such that it takes a lot of time to come to the point. And even when it does – the audience isn’t entertained by what it sees. Probably the worst part of the screenplay is that once the motives of the characters are established, there isn’t much the film offers as after that, it is only about how, not what.

A few scenes – including the one when Atul and Sundari hire the goons; when Ravi’s intentions are revealed; when Sonia does what she does after she learns some things – have an impact. However, most others – including the one when Atul is consulting a sex expert; when he is shown to be interacting with the Russian businessman; when Sonia and the soothsayer have long conversations; when Sonia’s dog is cremated – bore the audience to no end. The narrative moves at a slow pace and even when it gathers steam in the last few reels, it isn’t engaging enough because the storyline is thin. In fact, the plot was more suited for a television serial or, better still, for a stage-play, than for a full-length film. There are no emotional scenes to speak of and the comedy is tepid, at best. The climax is unsatisfactory. The Hinglish dialogues are alright at most places and average at others.


Love You To Death Review: Performances

Chandan Roy Sanyal does a fair job as the husband who lacks self-confidence and who eats out of his mother’s hands. Yuki Ellias is very good as the stylish wife, Sonia. Although she doesn’t have the looks of a heroine, her performance is very confident and convincing. Suhasini Mulay shines as the greedy and ambitious mother-in-law. Kallol Banerjee, as the father-in-law, springs a surprise. Nicholas Brown does an average job as John. Sheeba Chadha, as Maya, is good. Sohrab Ardeshir (as the sex expert), Chetan Sashital (as the theatre person), Sagar Salunke (as Chhotu), Uday Chandra (as the undertaker) and others offer very good support. Leonid Kudryavtsev, Graham Colley and Ella Kudryavtsev do ordinary jobs in their guest appearances.


Love You To Death Review: Direction

Rafeeq Ellias’ direction is fair. He extracts good performances from out of his cast members, but fails to hold together the faulty script. Ellias’ cinematography is good; several outdoor shots are well-taken. Music (composed by Ronit Chaterji) is stylised. The background score is functional. Action (by Manohar Verma) is quite nice. Editing, by Abhro Banerjee, is sharp.


Love You To Death Review: The Last Word

On the whole, Love You To Death is a below-average fare which does not entertain. It will fail at the box-office.

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