The 2010 Dibakar Banerjee film Love Sex aur Dhokha (LSD) was a highly captivating film, because of its found footage nature. Even though it had that layer of social satire with three interconnected stories, what made it so fresh was the treatment, which relied only on various types of cameras that were available during those days. When it comes to Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 (LSD 2), the scenario and society we live in are such that there is no need to deliberately make it a found footage film, and this time, the emphasis is more on exposing the myths behind what is being sold as reality.
Much like the first part, here also we have three stories connected to one another. The first one is, Like, where we see a transgender person being a part of a reality show and how the broadcasters and people around are using it for popularity and money. The second story, Share, is also revolving around a transgender individual. But this story is coming from the perspective of the person who is against the transgender. The last story, Download, is more about social media validation, and sarcastically Dibakar even goes to show us what could possibly happen in an Apple Vision Pro-driven future.
This 2024 version of LSD, is written by Shubham and Prateek Vats, who wrote Eeb Alley Ooo! While the first one was more evidently focused on the making aspect of that film, this time, the agenda is full-on social critique. The movie is basically trying to dissect the fakeness of various versions of realities we see on a daily basis. The story of Noor is used to expose the reality show scenario. The way the writers clubbed something like a Nach Balliye with Big Boss was hilarious, and without any hesitation, they slapped the TRP greed. In the second story, the fakeness we get to know is more about the pseudo-progressive initiatives. We see how privileged people use the underprivileged and marginalized for the sake of creating a good name for the organizations they represent. The last one felt a lot more relatable as it dealt with the validation seeking that happens in the lives of social media influencers, and like I already said, it ends with a visual that looks equally funny and serious.
Since Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 doesn’t completely follow the found footage format and it uses mediums like reality TV, live streaming, reels, shorts, video calls, etc., the visuals are slightly more staged, and the visual quality is also on the better side. But Dibakar uses the kind of drama these formats use to create tension to mock them and expose them. And he also maintains the peculiarity in these stories by using several POV shots. The nuances of the writing in establishing the inner games happening in each story are pretty good, and that actually exposes the hypocrisy in a hilarious way in many places. The only major issue I felt was the fact that the film had that evident political texture, which made it less surprising on a craft level.
Paritosh Tiwari, as the Sach ya Nach contestant Noor, performed the reality and staged reality of the character very convincingly on screen. A special mention should be there for Swaroopa Ghosh, who played the mother of that character. Bonita Rajpurohit was excellent as Kullu, and Swastika Mukherjee was equally good as the manipulative superior. Abhinav Singh, who played the part of the influencer, Gamepaapi, got the beats of that character perfectly.
Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 (LSD 2) feels more like an angry outburst with many valid points than a well-crafted social satire. While the political aspirations of the movie that ask the audience to check the reality of these things before emotionally getting invested in them are really relevant in the current scenario, the lack of a compelling format is reducing the creative charm of this social critique.
Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 (LSD 2) feels more like an angry outburst with many valid points than a well-crafted social satire.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
