Love Sex aur Dhokha

About the film

Love Sex Aur Dhokha (transl. Love, Sex and Betrayal), also known by the initialism LSD, is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language anthology found footage drama film directed and written by Dibakar Banerjee, and co-written by Kanu Behl. Jointly produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor, and Priya Sreedharan under the banner of ALT Entertainment, the film stars mostly newcomers including Anshuman Jha, Nushrat Bharucha, Rajkummar Rao, Neha Chauhan, Amit Sial, Herry Tangri and Ashish Sharma. The first instalment of a duology. It has three separate but interlinked stories about an honour killing, an MMS scandal, and sting operations.

Banerjee conceived the film after he came across several video clips containing sexual content including the DPS MMS clip and wanted to explore what led to that situation. He then wrote two short stories, which he later expanded into three. The film was made entirely using digital formats with different cameras, including a handycam, an amateur film camera, a security camera, an underwater camera, and spy cameras. Nikos Andritsakis served as the film's cinematographer and Namrata Rao was its editor. The film's soundtrack was composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and the lyrics were written by Banerjee.

Plot

Rahul, a young amateur film director in his early 20s decides to make a small-budget film for the diploma of his film course. He conducts an audition and meets Shruti, a young girl whom he chooses for the leading role. Shruti belongs to an orthodox family and her father is a real estate magnate. The two bond and become closer, but Shruti's overprotective, aggressive brother overhears their telephone conversation and attacks the film set to find out the identity of the caller. Shruti tells Rahul her father will get her married to someone else; they elope and get married. From their honeymoon suite, they telephone Shruti's family and ask for their acceptance; her father and brother are initially angry but then approve and tell them they will be sending a car to pick them up from the hotel. During the journey, Rahul and Shruti are ambushed by Shruti's brother and his goons who murder them, dismember their bodies with an axe and bury their remains.

Shruti's friend Rashmi is a quiet woman who works night shifts in a supermarket to support her family. Adarsh, a supermarket supervisor, has obtained his job by using his family connections with the store's owner and has debts with loan sharks. He makes a pact with a friend to make a sex tape with one of the employees to sell to the media for a large sum of money; Adarsh chooses Rashmi, for whom he develops genuine feelings. He decides to back out of the plan but his feelings for Rashmi are suppressed by his greed. Rashmi receives news about the gruesome deaths of Shruti and Rahul and is deeply saddened. Taking advantage of Rashmi's vulnerability, Adarsh has sex with her and captures it on the shop's security camera. Having sold the footage, Adarsh is able to pay off his debts. It is later revealed that Rashmi was fired from the supermarket and shunned by her family.

Prabhat, an investigative reporter, is desperate for a sensational story so he will be paid a bonus by the news company that employs him. He saves the life of aspiring dancer Naina, who tries to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. Naina is initially furious at Prabhat but plans a sting operation with him to take revenge on Loki Local, a music producer and singer who asked her to trade sex for the position of a leading dancer in his upcoming music video. Prabhat and Naina take the sting footage to the media, who encourage them to plan another sting; Naina will supposedly blackmail Loki by threatening to reveal the initial footage in an attempt to catch him trying to bribe her—to render false any accusations by Loki of fabrication of footage. Naina meets Loki in the supermarket where Rashmi works to execute the sting, while Prabhat watches closely. The plan goes awry when Loki tries to steal the camera and shoots Prabhat, who is admitted to the hospital. Naina goes to meet Prabhat to hand over the footage so he can get the bonus, but he decides to protect Naina's dignity, refuses to give his superiors the footage and resigns. It is revealed that Naina has betrayed Prabhat by accepting the role as the lead dancer in Loki's new music video.

Production

Director Dibakar Banerjee said several real-life sex scandals, including the DPS MMS scandal, inspired him to make Love Sex Aur Dhokla because he "wanted to do something on what led to that incident". He co-wrote two short stories with Kanu Behl, which they later expanded into three. According to Banerjee, he found some sex tapes "hilarious" because "those people, while having sex were also struggling with the camera, the ergonomics of how to shoot while having sex". He wrote a two-page story about a man who is in love and "the contrast between what he thinks love should be and what it actually is". The film consisted of three stories dealt with issues of honour killings, sexual exploitation and voyeurism. The second story is based on diploma film footage that Banerjee had retrieved. He said the three stories were connected; "the way we played with time, and cause and effect and the fundamental rule that every story has a beginning, a middle and an end".

Key details