Siraj Syed reviews Beiimaan Love: Bed bet

It’s as old as the hills: rich brat leads a virtuous-but-sexy woman down the garden path, discards her like a soiled tissue, roles get reversed, hunter becomes prey, exploited heroine strikes back, lays out an elaborate game-plan, and ‘vengeance is mine’. Would you make a film on this theme with a former porn-star in the central role and her current husband as her comrade-in-arms? Not if you weighed the odds. Yes if you felt that those who come for the skin-show will stay back to admire Sunny Leone’s histrionics, however little maybe on offer.

Of the inestimable count of films that cashed in on this formula, two come to mind right away: the super successful Khoon Bhari Maang, with Rekha at her blazing best, and the damp squib, Bhula Na Dena, where dancing star Helen played a mother with a shady past trying to keep her daughter away from it all. Add to them Cruel Intentions, and here’s a threesome reference material. Beiimaan Love is catchy title, which should translate as Dishonest Love. (All similarity to the moniker of another film called Dangerous Husn—beauty—another film due for release shortly, starring Sunny and Daniel Weber, her husband, is purely so-incidental).

Beiimaan Love is a dark love story about the ‘beiimaani’ (betrayal/dishonesty; stylised spelling) of love. The story revolves around today’s strong, independent woman. It deals with human relationships and values of life. Sunny Leone plays the role of a young, ambitious, hard-working girl, Sunaina, whose world suddenly comes crashing down due to an elaborate seduction plan hatched by the son of her diamond merchant boss (played by Rajiv Verma), playboy Raj Malhotra (Rajniesh Duggall), and some harsh realities of her mother’s dark past life. Instead of breaking under the pressure, she reinvents herself, and returns with vengeance, in a new avatar, as a business tycoon! This time around, though, the tables have turned, with a new twist leading to an unpredictable, hard-hitting culmination!

Right from his beginnings as a film trade journalist, Rajeev Chaudhari has a passionate, multifaceted involvement with Bollywood and the audio-visual world of entertainment- television and cinema. He first worked for the Bombay-based weekly, Film Information, owned by producer Ramraj Nahata. In the late 80s, he moved on from being a film-trade analyst to become a Public Relations Officer, bagging a couple of big production houses, like Dev Anand and Rajshri Productions. In the mid-90s, he ventured into production of TV and film content, and set-up a production company, with his wife Aneesa: Avanti Arts Pvt. Ltd. After two feature films, Gunaah and Karzmukt, of which little is known, he has surfaced with his third feature.

Directed, produced and written by Rajeev Chaudhari (quaint spelling variation of the surname) Beiimaan Love is both amateurish and choppy. An effort is made to inculcate some sense of pace by flash-backs, where none were required. All characters are uni-dimensional. Three feminine parts are always displaying their ample anatomies, under the ‘flimsiest’ of excuses. The fourth one, a former ‘sex-worker’, who remains saree-clad, meets a gory end. We shall, of course, not refer to octogenarian grand-mother and the ‘septugenarian’ maid. All the men are either pre-occupied with trying to bed women, piling up filthy lucre, guzzling alcohol, or snorting drugs. All but...guess who? Daniel Weber, the American diamond baron who dotes over Sunaina. And are we forgetting Sunaina? She might be the stuff virgin whores are made of, but she won’t take it lying down when she discovers that the man who took her virginity was using the sacred moment to settle a bet. Sunaina may almost be a clever Indianisation of Karenjit Kaur Vohra’s ‘nom de porn’, even an ana...gram, for Sunny. Not enough excuse for having her name being shouted out every 30 seconds.

Sunny Leone (Jism 2, Shootout at Wadala, Ragini MMS 2, Ek Paheli Leela, Mastizaade, One Night Stand) still has miles to go before she can lay claim to acting talent. Two expressions are what she can come up with over two hours. Rajniesh Duggall (Dangerous Ishq, Samrat & Co., Ek Paheli Leela) who is really tall (Sunny is really short) and possesses very expressive eyes, with a convincing forlorn look, is wasted. Maybe Sunny wanted him to be paired with her again, after Ek Paheli Leela, because he made way for Daniel Weber to ‘stand-in’ in all the intimate scenes. He looks more Western than Indian, like her.

Daniel Weber, a guitarist and the owner of the couple’s production house, is soon to be seen in the lead role of a film called Dangerous Husn. After Beiimaan Love, Dangerous Dan is likely to pose danger at the box-office. News reports say that Weber whets all scripts and takes all decisions about Sunny’s portrayal on every film. Rajiv Verma, who’s began with television and has been around for 30 years, is all at sea, made to shout around pointlessly.

Chaudhari alleges that he had many reservations about this film, including the presence of buxom bombshell Zeisha Nancy alongside his wife, so some compromises were made, affecting the narrative. He also confided to this reviewer that his first choice was Kangana Ranaut, but she was booked for many months ahead, and he had to settle for Sunny. One can only conjecture whether the first choice would have impacted the end result. A considered guess is, “No.” Yuvraj S. Singh, cast as Raj’s brother-in-law, has been a DJ in more than 100 clubs, with stints in London, Paris and Amsterdam. In his first major role, he shows a penchant for villainy. Avtar Gill cuts a sorry figure, thanks to some intentionally funny dialogue, in an ill-executed scene. Rina Charaniya and Zeisha Nancy do their bits.

Editing by Samar Singh and Sadique Iqbal is often contrived and fails to give the film punctuated pace. Music by Ankit Tiwari, Raghav Sachar, Sanjeev Darshan, Manj Music, Amjad-Nadeem (from the family that gave us Sajid-Wajid) and Asad Khan is tuneful. Veteran Sameer Anjaan and Raqueeb Alam contribute two songs each. Sameer’s ‘Merey peechhey Hindustan hae’ is a high-voltage item-number.

Rating: * ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihMSnZKah5k