Monica

Monica is based looselyon cases like that of murdered journalist Shivani Bhatnagar and the poetess Madhumita Shukla . There was a bit of controvers... read more

Monica is based looselyon cases like that of murdered journalist Shivani Bhatnagar and the poetess Madhumita Shukla . There was a bit of controversy when Niira Radia asked the Delhi High Court to put a stay order on the movie since it showed her life in a scandalous manner (the Monica in the movie is shown caught up in a telecom scandal).But the Producer Kish Bhargava denied this saying the movie was made much before this scandal broke out.

So much for the salacious gossip. I wish the movie was as juicy as all the talk attached to it. This is supposed to be a sort of political thriller about ambitious women who sleep their way to the top (with men and women), jealous husbands and how of course in the end the dirty politicians and businessmen triumph.

There is enough meat in the story to make a good taut thriller. The movie however fritters away the opportunity with long turgid courtroom dialogues where the prosecutions lawyer questions the witnesses and then answers all the questions himself. The background music while all this talking is going on makes a knocking sound on your skull that irritates you badly. The story lurches back and forth and leaves you a bit confused. The lawyer only insinuates that the top politician (Ashutosh Rana) editor (Tinnu Anand) and business woman (Kittu Gidwani) are involved. There are no solid proofs submitted. Instead we are subjected to a lesson in geometry with Venn diagrams being shown to the Judge who looks like she wants to beat the lawyer up (I wish she had).

Divya Dutta is a fine actress and I usually like her performances. She tries hard here but her character develops haphazardly. We do not know how she evolves from a shy, diffident small town journalist to one who has access to the inner circles of power. She looks sort of sleazy at best and I could not see the intelligence or good looks that would have attracted either the politician or the editor or the business magnate to her. Rajit Kapoor as the journalist husband jealous of his wife has to look anguished and drunk which are not very hard to do but he still looks ill at ease. Ashuotosh Rana as the politician sports the steely deep look that says "I mean more than the words I have spoken". Kittu Gidwanis business tycoon is all cool sophistication.

A serious topic can be made into good thought provoking entertainment but I was bored with the goings on. The motivation of the characters for their actions is never clear, Monicas character is all muddled up and her manic laughs or hysteric tears failed to move me and the worst part is the end is totally unsatisfactory. Avoid.view less

After recently finding out that no one killed Jessica I had to sit through 2 hours of torturous boring watch to find out ki monica ko kaisa maara?... read more

After recently finding out that no one killed Jessica I had to sit through 2 hours of torturous boring watch to find out ki monica ko kaisa maara? Kaun maara? aur Kyun maara?

So this is a film where Radia urf Pamela in the film played by Kitu Gidwani has been portrayed as a lesbian who sleeps with Monica (Divya Dutta). Right from a young age Monica is sexually exploited. This then turns into a series of sexual exploitation by a series of men. The film begins with the murder of Monica and jumps back and forth from the trial of her murder. Funnily the two dudes who kill are present in the courtroom throughout the hearing. What we see is a very haphazardly put screenplay which neither ends up as a gripping courtroom drama nor an impactful social drama based on the real life story of Shivani Bhatnagar a journalist who worked with the Indian express.

The problem with the film is that the director narrates it in an extremely dry manner relying mostly on dialogues. This film compared to NOKJ is a perfect example to see the difference in narrating a similar subject. In spite of playing the lead role Divya Dutta doesnt get even a single scene which she could own as an actor. At times the film makes her ham. Despite her best effort the performance doesnt stand out. Ashutosh Rana does what he has been doing for years. Play a calm and composed character that freaks out only once in a while. Dadhi Pandey as Sandeep Mishra stands out amongst the actors which includes an overacting Rajit Kapoor as Raj Jaitley ( Monicas husband). After a point the screaming, yelling and the constant ringing of the phone just gets to you. In a hall filled with and odd 10 people 6 walked out much before the movie ended. What more do I say.

Final few words: if politics interest you and you are starving to go to theatres please stay at home because this Monica darling is a good subject gone wrong.

Rating : *

Ticket Meter: not even worth a dvd watch.
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And they all slept with her too. Sushen Bhatnagar (director of the forgettable Soch) serves us yetanother mishmash of thriller-suspense-drama. Moni... read more

And they all slept with her too. Sushen Bhatnagar (director of the forgettable Soch) serves us yet
another mishmash of thriller-suspense-drama. Monica (Divya Dutta) is an up and coming journalist
who sleeps her way to the top only to get embroiled in a telecom scam, involving the minister, a top
corporate and a high profile newspaper editor. We know from the beginning that she is killed but
only after two hours and twenty minutes does the painful conclusion to this case happen. There is
court room drama, and many fast paced chilling psycho moments. But what could have been a great
opportunity to comment on the political-media-corporate nexus turns out to be a pain in the ass.

Divya Dutta hams her way throughout the film. And yes she has exposed a lot (as is the demand of such B-grade cinema). The script of the film is so redundant that you wonder if you have traveled in a time machine and gone back to the eighties. Director Sushen Bhatnagar does a competent job but definitely lacks vision since he is also the writer of the film and hasnt been able to translate the original thought onto film. The screenplay follows a non-linear format but does not confuse the viewer. And that is only because everything is so retarded that single digit IQ individuals will also find this an insult to their intelligence.

The film is not a big release and might be aimed only at the B & C centers. What with Divya Duttas
boobs hanging out of her weird costumes, it couldnt be more than that. There is liberal dosage of
English dialogue and the four letter word is used quite often, which makes me wonder if the film is
aimed at any audience at all; besides the relatives of the director and the actors (which was true for the screening I went for).

Watching this film made me realize that a critics job is no bed of roses. But someones gotta do it. In
this case that poor bas%@*d happened to be me. But I do not wish this fate even on my worst enemy. Or maybe I do. view less

The movie is about an ambitious woman

The Year 2011 seems to be the year of dark true life inspired thrillers that has caught the immediate attention of the audience and been lapped up... read more

The Year 2011 seems to be the year of dark true life inspired thrillers that has caught the immediate attention of the audience and been lapped up eagerly thus making them small budget big profit ventures at the box-office. First it was 'Nobody Killed Jessica' that turned into an All India hit simply because of it's true life inspired plot and now Sushen Bhatnagar has tried hard to recreate the magic of NOKJ but in a different scenario as he sets his films between the murky world of politics and the use and abuse of the political media for personal gains and corporate shady deals spread across the corridors of power and influence spread across Lucknow,New Delhi & Mumbai.

Being a real low budget film 'Monica' depends mostly on the cast to deliver the goods and indeed Ashutosh Rana and Divya Dutta as Monica Jaitley the lead character prove truly impressive as they virtually get under the skin of their character making the film all the more interesting with their sterling performance.

Over the years Divya Dutta was considered to be an actress who's best was behind her now and she was reduced to doing character roles where her performances went mostly went unnoticed. However a spark of hope was lighted when she did that saucy naughty performance of 'Jalebi' in Delhi-6. That's when people actually sat up and took a good hard look at the recycled Divya Dutta.

Monica is another step forward for Divya Dutta in the same direction as she gives a spellbound performance of the lead female protaganist Monica Jaitley. This film is bound to go down as one of the finest films of Divya's career and it could well give her a fresh second lease in Bollywood that could be a real boon for her fans.

Along with her Ashutosh Rana shines with a power-packed performance but that is not all it's the supporting cast of Kitu Gidwani, Tinu Anand,Rajit Kapoor who hold the film together and keep the audience glued to the seat with their hard hitting performances.

Monica revolves around power,lust, sleaze, sex and manipulation weaved into todays political world where anyone and everyone is used,abused,misused for personal gains just to move ahead towards achieving their ambitions and aspirations.

Monica is a small town ordinary girl in Lucknow who has been sexually molested by a faceless sex pevert in a cinema hall who wildly gropes her in the dark and their is nothing she can do about it.How weird, but it can possibly be true only in Lucknow. Over the year the girl grows with her scars intact and emerges as Monica Jaitley who decides to use any and every mean to move ahead in life even if it means using her sexuality and body to rise in life.

With such a mantra nothing can hold her ambitions back so what if she is already married. Once she let's her sexuality loose and makes bold overtures she starts to rise swiftly in her profession while her husband stagnates in the same profession as her. It's not long before her reputation and free availability for favors gets her into the big league as people from all walks of life are falling over each other to sleep with her and she uses this to rise in her life faster than she can actually handle it.

The result is that greed and lust lead her down the sleaze path and when she tries to use her information and clout to blackmail and corner political bigwigs she ends up in a real big mess that eventually ends up with her being ruthlessly murdered by those very people who took her up the success ladder.

Even though the film takes pains to claim it is a work of fiction it cannot resist confessing that it has been inspired by several true events so one cannot help but wonder where the director has got all the inspiration from whether it is developing Monica's character on the sleazy gruesome murder of Indian Express senior reporter Shivani Bhatnagar in New Delhi or the ruthless murder of Madhumita Shukla in Lucknow when she got too hot to handle when she started to use her pregnancy to corner the politician bigwig to leave his wife and children and marry her.

Considering that Ashutosh Rana plays an ambitious scheming and manipulative telecom minister it is hard to ignore that Kitu Gidwani's character has heavy shades of Nadia even if she is shown as a lusting hot lesbian who just cannot stay out of Monica's pants thus making Miss Jaitley swing both ways in the sack.

All said and done 'Monica' is a refreshing gem that is not just entertaining but also edge of the seat as a political sleazy thriller that keeps you engrossed as it has too many heavy shades of real life characters to possibly miss. Truly Monica is an out and out Divya Dutta film!!!

REVIEWED BY THE LIP SHANDIL
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