Miss Lovely

Miss Lovely
Film poster
Directed byAshim Ahluwalia
Written byAshim Ahluwalia
Uttam Sirur
Produced byShumona Goel
Sanjay Shah
Pinaki Chatterjee
StarringNawazuddin Siddiqui
Niharika Singh
Menaka Lalwani
Anil George
Zeena Bhatia
CinematographyK. U. Mohanan
Edited byParesh Kamdar
Ashim Ahluwalia
Music byIlaiyaraaja
Cloudland Canyon
Kip Uhlhorn
Distributed byEasel Films
Eagle Movies
Release dates
  • 24 May 2012 (2012-05-24) (Cannes)
  • 17 January 2014 (2014-01-17) (India)
[1]
Running time
110 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

Miss Lovely is a 2012 Indian drama film directed by Ashim Ahluwalia and set in the criminal depths of Mumbai's C-grade (horror and porn film) industry.[2] Ahluwalia's debut feature follows the story of the Duggal brothers who produce sleazy sex-horror films in the mid-1980s.[3] The plot explores the intense and mutually destructive relationship between younger sibling Sonu Duggal, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and his elder brother, Vicky (Anil George). Sonu finds himself drawn to a mysterious young woman named Pinky (Niharika Singh) eventually leading to his downfall. Miss Lovely had its cinematic release on 17 January 2014.[4] The film has received the National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Feature film) and Best Production Design at the 61st National Film Awards.[5]

The stylized form, densely layered narrative, period costumes and production design simultaneously convey a pulp style and contemporaneous modernity. Jonathan Romney of Sight & Sound described the film as "A shock to the system – an Indian film like I’d never seen."[6] The film constantly switches between genre pieces and is part hard-boiled film noir, part love story, part melodrama and part documentary. It has been compared to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express.[3]

Shot on a combination of Kodak Super 16 and 35mm film in widescreen, the central themes of Miss Lovely include repressed sexuality, censorship, the deconstruction of genre, the material nature of celluloid and the extinction of cinema itself.[7] The film soundtrack also links back to a history of past cinema, particularly the use of the rare work of Italian composers Egisto Macchi and Piero Umiliani, who had both scored exploitation films. The soundtrack also employs film scores by Indian composer Ilaiyaraaja and disco producer Biddu.

Miss Lovely competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[8][9] The film has since screened at numerous film festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival[10] and International Film Festival Rotterdam.[11] Miss Lovely was released on around 300 screens in India on 17 January 2014.[12]

  1. ^ Kumar, Anuj (25 April 2012). "Miss Lovely in Cannes". The Hindu. Chennai, India.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference film was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Miss Lovely On IMDB
  4. ^ "I'm glad Censor board didn't ban Miss Lovely: director | NDTV Movies.com". Movies.ndtv.com. 18 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 May 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  5. ^ "61st National Film Awards Announced: Live Update". Zee News. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  6. ^ BFI Film Forever Indian Independence
  7. ^ Cine Malin Film Commentary and Criticism
  8. ^ "2012 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  9. ^ "Indian movie Miss Lovely at Cannes film fest". The Times of India. 20 April 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Marissa Bronfman Huffington Post
  11. ^ Miss Lovely Bright Future 2013
  12. ^ "Archived copy". www.boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)