Ishqiya

Raw sexuality and symbolism is a potent mix, and it turns into a heady cocktail with the love triangle that spices up Ishqiya, Vishal Bhardwaj’s latest production, which is seeing a decent start in theaters since its release last week.

Ishqiya, with eastern UP as its backdrop drags the audience into the rustic mindset of the “Bhaiyya” crowd, but with refreshingly surprising characters. The love triangle, as hinted heavily in the trailers, has a lusty Babban (the crackling Arshad Warsi) and the hardcore romantic Khallujan (a brilliant Naseeruddin Shah) and Vidya Balan as the sauciest, scheming seductress on screen yet, Krishna.

That said, the trailers themselves were a bit controversial, especially when Arshad and Vidya, showed up to promote their movie on “Chance pe Dance” a dance reality show for kids (seriously, how many are there?) and a slight confusion ended up with the executive directors airing the “A” rated trailers on the TV broadcast, outraging some parents and their amused kids.

Ishqiya has a liberal dosage of earthy humor, and language (think Omkara, another Vishal Bhardwaj creation) which is leading to a certain bad reputation through word of mouth, and many seemingly upset audiences complaining about the “potty” language.

Ishqiya however managed to skirt most controversies, and has solid performances from the three leads to boot, not to mention a fire storming entry by debutante director Abhishek Chaubey. Chaubey, who assisted Bhardwaj in many of his earlier works, Omkara, Kaminey, and the under rated Blue Umbrella, wanted to share his vision of a strong female lead with the Indian audience. Female actresses he believes are vastly under performed and under rated in this country, leading to almost mannequin like performances, which made Balan his first choice as the leading actress.

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