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.
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