Lakshmi Review

Doesn,t she deserved a better treatment.. With all of the earmarks of being a serious and thoughtful drama written and based on the real life story of Lakshmi (played by Monali Thakur), a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her village in Andhra Pradhesh, forced into prostitution who fights back and wins the case against her traffickers.

Filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor's work on sex trafficking comes as something of a shock where we discover that the final film is nothing but a force shocker a fake cinema.

We needed a powerful, soulful resonance to `screen' the country and the world's major issue of sex trafficking but Kukunoor's film dramatizes in such a fashion that unnecessarily adds sensationalisms, repeated shots of Lakshmi applying vaginal cream, washing her private part before going for next customer, man undressing, a rape is shown in court, all this again and again that just cheapens the cause.

Cult movies depicting brothels and its life like Shyam Benegal's `Mandi', Mira Nair's `Salam Bombay' didn,t restored to such sensationalisms but they touched our heart so profoundly.

Lakshmi is an act of sheer goondaisim (read exploitation) of the exploited.. won,t be surprised if the original Lakshmi files a case against the makers after watching this.

Its impossible to understand for whom is Nagesh Kukunoor making this tacky which eventually goes so gory that we see private parts being chopped and burnt just to add extra shocks..

Lacking insight and research on how trafficking pipeline works in India `Lakshmi' is a total misfire where the actors look disinterested, the protagonist fails to gather any sympathy, the hyderabadi influence seems forced as Kukunoor `trafficks' the case of `Lakshmi' by forced shock elements into a serious endeavor undercutting the concern by making a exploitative movie about exploitation.

Rating *