Subhash K Jha speaks about One Night Stand

By Subhash K. Jha -

May 7, 2016 - 9:51 AM IST

There is no saying where a one-night stand can lead you. It could even make you a part of a film which has all the makings of a new kind of erotic thriller.

A Sunny Leone film with a heart, and some soul.

Subhash K Jha speaks about One Night Stand

Stirring up this soul curry, the debutant director Jasmine Moses D'Souza pitches us three main characters. Urvil (Tanuj Virwani) is the kind of guy who can think as much with his head as his crotch. He lets the latter take over completely when he meets the sexy Celina (Sunny Leone). They have a wild night of sex in aesthetically shot love scenes, so done, perhaps, because a female director understands the need to take the love-making beyond the physicality.

Andâ€¦.that's it! For the woman, at least. But man-ah, his ego and libido!-won't accept a quick closure. From this point onwards, the plot unfolds partly as a thriller and more prominently as a drama of disintegrating domesticity.

The director Jasmine Moses D'Souza keeps a confident hold over her three characters even as two of them lose grip over their emotions. There are some unexpected twists in the second half. Not all of these surprises work. The heart is always in the right place even as the libido strays all over in pursuit of a pleasurable culmination.

While Tanuj Virwani does his greyish role of wimpish jerk who can't take a no for an answer, sure-handedly, the film clearly belongs to the two women playing his wife and one-night stand. Sunny Leone, for the first time seems to be validate her character's emotions without having to use her ample physical assets to compound the sexually unabashed's emotional durability.
(An aside: what would it have been like to have Kangana Ranaut in Sunny Leone's role?).

Newcomer Nyra Banerjee's as Simran, the philandering husband's devoted sweet and innocent wife is a pleasant surprise. She makes her presence felt although the focus is clearly on Ms Leone.

The director avoids the clichÃ©s of triangular dramas about extra-marital relations. The two female protagonists are painted neither black nor white. Throughout, the film conveys the bright yet restrained colours of hope and desire. For this, part of the credit must go to the cinematographer Rakesh Singh.

One Night Stand is easy on the eye and not heavy on the heart despite the dramatic potential of the plot. This is an erotic emotional excursion that makes me curious to see what the debutant direct would attempt next. Hopefully, a companion film about a female stalker who won't take no for an answer.

It's just not the male prerogative to be predator.