I am actually tired. My brain feels worn out. No, it is not because this is the second film I watched. I quite enjoyed Love Sex Aur Dhokha. So, I was looking forward to this one along with the trepidation of walking into a sequel. But, Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 turned out to be a little too much for me. A little too edgy. A little too shaky. A little too quirky. Yeah, I never thought I’d ever say that.

I know it sounds like I am grasping at straws here. But, for a less than 2-hour run-time, Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 can be a more enjoyable experience for someone more interested and knowledgeable about the content.

The beginning and end of it could have been the choice of subject. Reality shows and gaming—the first and last ones of the three shorts. The middle one is not that new-age, which is why I might have liked the best. But, then it is more of the same and pretty much a carry forward of the first instalment in 2010. So, I cannot imagine three of such shorts holding my attention.

On the other hand, I would just have been bored. Not dizzy. And it is not just the continuously wobbly camerawork. The content itself, the language too, feels alien. And too snappy to keep track of. Especially of the Love Like and the Dhokha Download segments. In that sense, I can’t really blame the makers. They cannot be faulted for my lack of understanding of the gaming or reality show lingo.

I didn’t help that some of the storylines were missing continuity. Again, the middle one is less than the other two. Why did the mother sing that song? I also wondered what was making the popularity of the reality show contestants rise and dip. But, I assume one of the points of the story was that no one really knows. Then, where did the content of the augmented reality bit in the end come from? Was it a comment on what our future is likely to be? All boloney?

What I can say though is that I enjoyed the rawness for a total of about half an hour through the film. I absolutely appreciate the makers’ hard and whole-hearted attempt at bring to light the issues that the LGBQTIA+ community faces. That is a theme that runs through the three stories.

Kudos to the cast too, for pulling it off brilliantly, making it look only as hard as it must be in real life. And this spreads to the actors playing straight characters too. Of all the gorgeous performances, the one that stood out was the woman playing the assistant producer. Her act was so nonchalant, so normal, so much like real-life people that I have seen in those jobs. And she had a screen presence too, for that bit part.

I know it sounds like I am grasping at straws here. But, for a less than 2-hour run-time, Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 can be a more enjoyable experience for someone more interested and knowledgeable about the content. On the other hand, is alienating the regular audience what the makers were shooting for?

- meeta, a part of the audience