The controversial Ram Gopal Verma is by far the most unpredictable director who can make some  brilliant classics like Company, Satya or Shiva or the substandard to amateurish Daud, Shiva(latest), Agyaat or Aag. But if you are a film lover you just cant miss his movies as you never know when his brilliance is branded in the scenes. 'Not a love story' is about dreams, love and possessiveness. Its a small budget movie and they have experimented not just with the story telling but technically as well. But at the end you cannot help but think that too much experimentation is not necessarily a good thing.

'Not a love story' is violent, its rough around the edges, but the way the story is told it does keep your eyes glued to the screen. But RGV's penchant for extreme camera angles, guerilla style of shooting  and the heavy personal steady cam shots wind up giving you a headache or motion sickness or both.  

The movie is about an aspiring actress(Mahie Gill), her possessive but caring boy friend (Deepak Dobriyal) and her one bad decision. The story is based on the real life Neeraj Grover murder incident, but RGV has twisted it a little bit. The movie is very successful in shocking you and it does chill your spine but when you come out all you can think of is your nausea and headache thanks mainly to the camera work.

The first half is long drawn, it just takes too much time to get to the twist in the middle of Act 2 but after that it picks up pace. The scene where the victim's body is being chopped to pieces and Mahie Gill isunable to stand the sound, the police interrogation scene and the scene before that proves the master-class of RGV.

The movie is very realistic and it is made that way thanks to the brilliant portrayal by the entire cast, Mahie Gill is first rate, she has to show an array of emotions and she portrays each with sensational ease. She looks great too. Deepak Dobriyal has set the bar high for himself thanks to his effective portrayal in Gulaal, Omkara and also in this year’s hit 'Tanu Weds Manu', and he sets the bar at a new high after 'Not a Love story'. He is sensational as a possessive but cool and caring boy friend. The rest of the cast too even though having very little time in front of the camera, do impress.

Technically the movie is not great but is supposed to be a game changer by using 5D still camera and HD phone camera for some shots. But even that can be utilized properly which is clearly not done in this movie, too many shots are placed to please the front benchers which will surely put off the movie's target audience. Experimentation doesn't stop at that, but even in the editing department they have tried to do it differently – by using an unconventional 'Breathless' kind of a technique which is done quite decently but it is not everyone's cup of tea. Background music is too loud.

Overall in the time of stylish filmmaking of no substance movies, RGV tries to differ but with such a wafer-thin but powerful plot-line, you expect the background music, editing and camera work to push it to greatness and that is where the movie falters. 

Verdict: crocin sales is going to shoot up!