‘Hate Story’ review: No erotic thriller!

Zeenews Bureau

Yes you read it right. As much as the PR agency of the film would like us to believe, Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘Hate Story’ falls miserably short of being called an erotic thriller. The film is a revenge saga and to put it simply lacks logic. The story begins with newspaper reporter Kavya (Paoli Dam) exposing a big scam of a cement company. The company’s owner gives his son (Gulshan Devaiah), who also happens to the MD of the company, 12 hours to fix things. Gulshan manages to convince the CEO of the firm to take the blame. Meanwhile, he befriends Kavya, offers her a lucrative post in his firm and seduces her to sleep with him. Once the job is done, he humiliates Kavya and fires her from the job. Damsel seeks revenge and for some reason takes up the profession of a prostitute to get to her enemy. No logic given behind the sudden transformation, but Kavya decides that sleeping with important men is the only way to get through her ultimate enemy, Devaiah. Even though revenge sagas are not new to Hindi cinema, the premise still held some promise. But sadly due to a weak and prolonging script, the viewers are left bored. For those who are eager to know about whether there are bold scenes or not, well, most scenes are just merely suggestive. There is lot panting, sighing, huffing which just plain suggests lot of action between the sheets but that’s all. Bengali actress Paoli Dam may titillate you with her bare back in the posters but will leave you unimpressed with a performance which lacks any kind of spark. Nikhil Dwivedi, who plays Paoli friend in the movie, just remains in the background. The baddie of the film, Gulshan Devaiah is perhaps the only actor in the film who gives a convincing performance. A weak script and weak performance makes this film an ordinary revenge tale. Pitty, considering the way it was being marketed, it could have turned out be a bold erotic thriller and perhaps changed the thriller genre in the industry. But that would be asking for a lot! Ratings: Two cheers for this one!