Director Tisca Chopra lacks a distinctive voice: the scenes are bland, empty, and formless.
Smita (Radhika Apte) has a deep connection with nature. A botany graduate, she considers her plants, her home, and her husband her entire world. However, when her cherished world begins to crumble, Smita resorts to drastic measures to protect herself. Why only herself? Because (and this is a line from the film) "the law of nature is to eat or be eaten." Moreover, Pankaj (Anshumaan Pushkar), her husband, is not exactly Prince Charming; on the contrary, he's a weed, something that needs to be uprooted and eliminated.
Director: Tisca Chopra
Writer: Tisca Chopra
Stars: Radhika Apte, Divyendu Sharma, Sauraseni Maitra
Pankaj is an alcoholic, a loser, and deeply in debt. He doesn't even manage to satisfy Smita in bed. Smita means "smile," and the character has to go to the bathroom after sex to experience that feeling of joy. Despite her circumstances, this housewife never complains or demands anything from her husband. She simply coexists with him and... smiles. Online movie streaming services
One could say that Smita likes living in her little bubble, a bubble that initially seems about to burst because of Pankaj. He has his sights set on their "house in Moradabad," which he plans to sell to Gajendra bhaiya (Anurag Kashyap) to pay off his debts. But the person who truly plunges Smita's life into complete chaos turns out to be Shalini (Sauraseni Maitra), her own sister.
From the moment Pankaj sees her, he is smitten. Shalini also encourages him, flirts with him, and eventually, they have sex. But Shalini is also playing with Ratan (Divyenndu), a police officer. If you ask Ratan, he will proudly say that Shalini is his girlfriend (Shalini clearly doesn't share the same sentiment). It is here that Saali Mohabbat becomes a complete mess. I wanted to know more about Shalini: what she thinks, why she is the way she is, and what the roots of her actions are.
Director Tisca Chopra, along with her co-screenwriters Sanjay Chopra and Namrata Shenoy, only offers hints and suggestions. When Shalini meets Pankaj, she calls him "handsome." That is, she's physically attracted to him. Later, annoyed by her mother, who keeps pestering her about marriage, Shalini sends Pankaj a picture of herself as an invitation to have sex. She probably wants to prove that marriage is pointless. But who is she trying to convince of this? Her mother? I don't think so, because she's not going to call her mother to tell her she's been sleeping with married men (her ex-boyfriend was also married). So, is she trying to convince herself that by remaining single, she's making the right decision, since all husbands are unfaithful and lustful (another husband, at a party, tries to hit on a stunning woman)?
By refusing to delve deeper into these details, Chopra ends up making a B-movie about violence and sex. It doesn't help that it lacks a distinctive voice: the scenes are bland, empty, and shapeless. The impersonal direction corresponds to a hollow substance. Chopra probably wants to say that men who can't control their sexual impulses are like weeds that must be eradicated by brute force or through cruel suggestions, but this vision of feminism, unfortunately, is about as effective as a cheap, sensationalist novel sold at train stations. Come to think of it, I think those novels are more stimulating and entertaining.
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