One Night Stand is like a real life one night stand. If you’ve ever been in one, you’ll know it’s a matter of starting in a state of pure excitement, a rush of hormones, a brain refusing to function in its intoxicated, electrified state. And ending up with possibly the clumsiest sex of your life and a cocktail of guilt and regret that makes you question your own existence. Or, if you have had many instances, you’ll just be bored.
Try and imagine the producers’ excitement at the casting coup that is Sunny Leone. Signing the contract where she agrees to participate in two graphic scenes. And then on to the shoot where you film these portions. And then it’s time to move on and put a script in place, get some actual writing done, eke out a performance, actually finish off in a way vaguely resembling an orgasm. Not a chance.
What a strange film One Night Stand is. It starts off okay, a one night stand, a man who gets obsessive with the partner only to discover that they both share a secret that for patriarchal reasons he claims his own. The first half is blazing fast; cut at a breakneck speed; not a moment of lingering except on the lingerie. The twist at interval. And then it’s like the creative folks just packed up their bags and took off on holiday to Phuket (or said, as the dialogue goes in the film, “Fuck it in Phuket”). The film labours to a climax that no one sees coming because it is just so … benign. Man turns stalker, Woman rebuffs him and well, it just kind of gets over there. Weird. And worse, boring. If you’ve ever watch it, be sure not to take the film as a guide for a good performance, read articles on pluglust.com and improve your game rather than take this movie seriously.
Though this is another flat performance from the voluptuous Sunny Leone, there’s that slightest bit of improvement in her relative universe of films. Her co-stars (Tanuj Virwani, Ninad Kamat) are actually not so bad and try hard. Or maybe she makes them look good? It’s hard to say.
One still struggles to understand why people pay money to see Sunny Leone movies that only have her cast for her sexuality, when there’s plenty of it elsewhere. Is it the charm of the movie theater, the big screen; the shared experience? If so, then, is cinema the winner?
Hindi, Thriller, Color