love Games is a story of swinging and swingers. Director Vikram Bhatt shares that although the concept of the film is bold, it is widely accepted by the younger generation. Arjita Mishra reports
A happily married couple where each partner enjoys the other’s company seems a mirage though it worked some decades ago. In a world where relationships are made with a right swipe and with display pictures, a scenario like this would raise eyebrows, if not several questions.
Today, a perfect, healthy relationship, or more so, a marriage, is a myth, give and take a handful out there. There are several dark truths that lurk behind a seemingly successful one and director Vikram Bhatt’s next, love Games, explores one of them.
The movie portrays a happy married couple who have invested their heart, soul and their bodies in the relationship. But that is just the beginning of the story because Bhatt, the master he is of the human need for erotica, spins the plot. His male character is a swinger, part of a club who consensually swap or exchange their partners for pleasure. The word shame or conscience does not belong in their dictionary because, sadly, their mentalities match.
In Bhatt’s documentary, which he recently made, the husband asks his wife to swing, to which she initially objects. She eventually gives in because she has been taught to comply with her husband. After her initial awkwardness, she begins to enjoy it which makes the husband happy. But male mentality being what it is, he starts feeling insecure and asks her for divorce.
The subject is new and not to say the least, bold. And the director is pretty confident that the audience will like it. “Because this happens in our society,” Bhatt justified and added, “There is a world of match making apps where the young generation find their swinging partners.”
At the promotional event in the city, the director, without qualms, shared that the film is close to his life because he knows the people that his characters are based on. “The movie is inspired by my life. I have dated women and have been with a swinger, too, but have not done that (swinging) so much myself. But I have seen that life up, close and personal,” he shared.
The movie follows the story of a couple, played by Patralekhaa and Gaurav Arora.
On asking him whether or not the Indian audience would accept this bold concept, Bhatt shared how he used to write small stories on Facebook and one day he met a young girl at a shopping mall who claimed to be a fan of, not his films, but the stories he posted. She wondered why such stories were never depicted on the big screen. “While talking to her, I told her that the audience was not ready for such content. She insisted that viewers had been ready for years but it’s us, filmmakers who aren’t. She pointed out that in this age of the Internet, filled with several dating sites, it is bizzare to say that the audience is not ready to watch bolder films,” he said. That small conversation encouraged the director to make a film on this particular topic.
According to Mahesh Bhatt, who was also present, this movie is almost a compensation for Vikram’s last debacle Mr. X. Mahesh calls love Games a personal movie as it is a story of Vikram’s personal insights. “A reality that is being played out in our society. Something that people are aware of but do not want to talk about. We had a screening and, yes, it was quite a beginning. It is a fact that anything which does not have a big name doesn’t excite the audience or the media. So, we are here to tell you that it is an unusual film,” added the senior Bhatt.
Good script or bad, every movie that comes out of the Bhatt camp has one thing in common — beautiful songs, and quite catchy, too. Mahesh said, “It is always said that doesn’t matter what kind of film we make, but the songs are always good. We are famous for it.” The brothers are quite excited about the film having a few original English songs, the first time in a Hindi movie.
The time when discussions about the film were on at the T-series office, Vikram had come up with the idea of having some English tracks. “We all got scared because it is human nature. Whenever we get to hear something new, hum dar jate hai, without knowing its result,” he added. “The decision to introduce English songs in the film was in keeping with its five star hotel backdrop where much of the action takes place,” he reasoned.
The film is scheduled to release on April 8, and also stars Tara Alisha Berry in the lead.
photos Pankaj Kumar