By: Farhana Sultana

Starring: Aashish Chowdhry, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora.
Producer: Paramjeet Baweja
Director: Karan Razdan.
Music: Daboo Malik.

Bollywood cinema in the guise of making meaningful cinema has many a time ended up making some outstanding unintentional comedies. Karan Razdan's GIRLFRIEND is one such film that is so consistently and inadvertently awful, that it is an absolute riot to watch.

The film has a thin semblance of a plot that is, in essence, a substandard rehash of the classic Bollywood "love triangle" gone wrong. The difference between GIRLFRIEND and earlier entries in this genre such as DARR, GUPT and PYAR TUNE KYA KIYA is that, this film sports an obsessive lesbian lover in love with her best friend. But the most striking thing about the film is how deeply hypocritical it is on every level. The enigmatic appeal of lesbian sensuality is exploit in GIRLFRIEND but only to condemn and labeling them as mentally unstable. Arora's character suffers from an affinity for alcohol. When she gets drunk, she ends up sleeping with her lesbian friend, but completely oblivious of her orientation. If sober, of course, she would never engage in such sinful behavior.

The film treats lesbianism as an injurious psychological disorder, which brings us to Razdan's central tenet where lesbianism is a dangerous violation of nature that must be eradicated. The film displays the worst possible misnomers about same sex attraction. Tanya was subject to grotesque child abuse and so she retreats to become a lesbian who hates all men and develops an unhealthy sexual fixation towards women, harboring homicidal and sociopath tendencies while her friend becomes a lesbian only sporadically due to substance abuse.

 In reality, the plot is one of convenience aimed only at maximizing the number of intimate encounters between Kopikkar and Arora's characters. Not that the plot really matters in a film like this. A film with no trace of a credulous plot and poorly written characters, the performance does very little to justify themselves. Kopikkar is quickly becoming a reliable over-actor, while Arora stumbles through her lines and forces ludicrously awkward expressions of delight and disgust as required. Both actresses could have done something interesting with the roles given to them but they do nothing more than prove that they belong in the industry ditch they are stuck in. Aashish Choudhary and the rest of the supporting cast turn in similarly miserable performances.

In addition to this, the terrible direction, awful songs, ridiculous sexual music videos, and some of the worse cinematography ever committed to celluloid makes for an absolutely incredible, thoroughly entertaining three hours of unintentional comedy. Nearly every aspect of the film will have an intelligent audience in splits.

Deepa Mehta's FIRE did tackle the issue earlier, but that was more about two lonely wives getting close due to circumstances. Karan Razdan's GIRL FRIEND, treated in a commercial format takes a different route altogether. Deepa Mehta's FIRE was a work of art which raised the subject to make a point, and not to titillate the senses of frontbenchers. In truth, GIRLFRIEND is a pathetic attempt to exploit lesbian sexuality to attract horny moviegoers, only to condemn homosexuality as a whole for its inherent immorality.

Karan Razdan's highly offensive lesbian exploitation flick can only realistically be recommended as something to be laughed at and ridiculed. The film is a laughing-stock and is recommended only for those that can enjoy making fun of the shoddiness of its filmmaking and the hypocrisy of its creators. Karan Razdan should start searching for a new livelihood. Movie making isn't his forte and he should realize it.

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