This tale of Mumbai’s exploitation-film business in the 1980s is an explosion of images, mixing seedy, hand-held reality with groovy grindhouse imitations. Most of the shots are vivid, some are even thrilling.
If only one could say the same about the narrative, which manages to be both confusing and predictable. Two brothers are churning out cheap (and illegal) horror-porn: Sonu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is handsome but dumb, Vicky (Anil George) is homely and marginally smarter. Sonu meets Pinky (Niharika Singh), a fresh young beauty, and wants to make a romantic film with her (meaning she’ll keep her clothes on).
This turns out as well as it always does for petty criminals who want to go straight in the movies.
So the “Miss Lovely” script’s a set of pulpy contrivances padded out for thematic oomph, but director Ashim Ahluwalia has serious visual flair, and that keeps you watching.