WISTFUL LOOK AT A PORN-WRITER'S LIFE

Mastram

STARRING: Rahul Bagga, Tara Alisha

DIRECTOR: Akhilesh Jaiswal

Unzip those inhibitions, will ya?

If in Mas tram, you expect a Boogie Nights kind of allencompassing panoramic peek-a-boo at the porn industry, then you are in for an anti - climax. Mastram chronicling the life-story of a man who would be kink(y), is a sad, glum, wistful look at the life of a litterateur who was persuaded to give porn a chance, just to make ends meet.

Director Akhilesh Jaiswal lets the porn writer Raja ram, aka Mastram, played by Rahul Bagga, grow within the space where sex is a synonym for survival. He must write dirty books to make a living. In Guru Dutt's Pyaasa, the poet Vijay faced the same dilemma. Write pulp, or perish, he was told Vijay preferred to perish.

Rajaram is a product of consumerist culture. With creditors knocking down his door, he chooses a life without debt. For those expecting to see the rise and fall of a generation fed on porn, Mastram is not your cup of tea. It never goes into the author's libidinous craft. It stays in his mind, probes and punctuates the protagonist's perverse practice dispassionately.

There is a pronounced absence of frenzied excitement in the narrative. We feel the pain beneath the porn. Director Jaiswal tears at the layers of titi l lation and touches upon the pain and loneliness of an artiste compelled to sell sex when al l he wants is to write literary works

Rahul Bagga plays Mastram with an air of boyish curiosity and impassive mystery. We never know what he is thinking, maybe because he isn't thinking much. Cou ld this man be faking his enthusiasm for erotica? We never touch the man's soul but feel its presence in his life and specia l ly in his bond with his wife, played with understated grace by Tara Alisha.

SUBHASH KJHA

that may not be written in the plot.

Yo Yo Honey Singh makes h is Bollywood acting debut. Playing a spoi lt, pampered, deceitful music director who marries into money and undeserved inheritance, Yo Yo imparts a certain innocence to his character's duplicity and greed. He isn't the villain but a victim of his unquenchable appetites

Himesh plays a superstar who falls in love with his latest heroine but is unable to confess all to the girl. The theme of unexpressed l ove provides a tantalising subtext to the sizzling, boiling, simmering plot filled with characters who can't tell the difference between lif e in the studios and outside The murder happens in the second overture during a grand after-party where two rival actresses come to blows. The eventful colourful fi l m never fails to take swipes at the world of make-believe. Intrigue, envy, jealousy, r ivalry, suspense and murder this is the masalaland ofthe 1960s as seen through the winking, glinting eyes of a director who understands the machinations ofthe entertainment industry. Normally fi l ms set in the entertainment i ndustry end up taking themselves too seriously. The Xpose careens between a mood of gratuitous satire and earnest regret for a world where sham is the name ofthe scam

Yup, there is no business like show business.

SUBHASH K. JHA