Monica - The Politics of Murder : A "thrust in the face" reality movie...

Once again here comes another “Thrust in the Face”reality movie after the successful “No one Killed Jessica”. Yeah, we are talking of “Monica : The Politics of Murder”. The film is a political thriller based on the life and times of the famous journalist Shivani Bhatnagar who was found murdered in her flat in Delhi some years back.

Produced by Mr. Kush Bhargava (a Lucknow based Congress leader) under the banner of Ark Widescreen Films in association with Anup Jalota and Sitara Productions, ‘Monica - The Politics of Murder’ as the title suggests is therefore, a story of a women’s murder and how the entire set up is politicized to gain popularity and mileage. The title of the film consciously, underlines this connect where the whole world of scams, corruption, ambition, politics, power, betrayals and alliances unfolds through the much-awaited socio-political thriller movie.

Monica is directed by Sushen Bhatnagar who debuted with SOCH - the psycho thriller that starred the then ravishing Raveena Tandon, Sanjay Kapoor, Aditi Govitrikar and Arbaaz Khan in lead roles. Naturally if he could ensemble such a star cast in his debut film, he obviously got the best for such an ambitious project. The film has a stellar cast including Ashutosh Rana, Divya Dutta, Rajit Kapur, Yashpal Sharma, Kittu Gidwani and others. The surprise package of the film is the Lucknow based Congress leader Kush Bhargava who plays himself - a politician in the film.

Whether the film will be able to bring in the audiences (given that the film is being released without any media hype or publicity), Divya Dutta has done some bold moves in this film (read - almost nude). Yes, it does have a very cosy intimate lesbian scene - a la “Fire” ishtyle between Divya Dutta and Kitu Gidwani. Don’t really understand what made the director get two ageing females do almost nude scenes for this film. According to Divya Dutta, it was shot aesthetically and isn’t vulgar or titillating and goes in sync with the storyline as the film revolves around two struggling and vulnerable women who find solace in each other.

Monica is all set to release today in Mumbai, where we will get to see the versatile actor Ashutosh Rana after a really long time supposedly playing the late Pramod Mahajan and Rajit Kapur in another stellar performance as Monica’s Editor husband. While Yashpal Sharma advocates the cause of the Monica’s of the world in the role of the Public Prosecutor, Tinu Anand and Kitu Gidwani bring to light the give and takes that are operational between an Industrialist and a Journalist. Dadhi Pandey,originally a theatre actor from Lucknow, is the Power broker, while Saurabh Dubey is another crafty Politician in this Socio-Political thriller.