'One Night Stand': Not hard hitting enough (IANS Review, Rating: **)

Film: Cast: Sunny Leone, Tanuj Virwani, Nyra Banerjee, Khalid Siddiqui, Narendra Jetley, Ninad Kamat; Director: Jasmine Moses D'Souza; Rating: **

With sketchy, stereotypical characters, "One Night Stand" is a bland tale of a casual, no-strings-attached sexcapade between strangers. The tale navigates an emotional tailspin after the two accidentally meet the second time.

The narration starts off in a simple and uncomplicated, though contrived, manner. After a successful event in Phuket, Thailand, the suave and charming Urvil Raisingh (Tanuj Virani), the head of operations of an event management company from Pune, while chilling with his colleagues, accepts a challenge to break the ice with one of the girls in the restaurant. The girl happens to be Celina (Sunny Leone), a photographer of sorts.

After a quick, flirtatious chat, the two strangers land up having a rolicking time, which includes moments spent in the bedroom, and soon they part ways.

Back in Pune, Urvil leads a blissful marital life with his wife Simran (Nyra Banerjee). A few days before his fifth wedding anniversary, while driving to his office, he happens to see Celina walking down a street in Pune. Soon his mind gets diverted towards her -- and a chance meeting at another event fortifies his fascination.

Adapted from the 1997-released English film of the same name, director Jasmine Moses D'Souza's maiden directorial venture is pleasingly charming. It rolls on directly into the subject and gradually negotiates a path of obsession, guilt trip, role-plays and gender-biases of the awkward relationship.

Scripted in a cautious manner, by screenwriter Bhavani Iyer, the plot is staid with a near-perfect and superficial screenplay. The characters are shallow as they are lazily crafted. The dialogues, written by Niranjan Iyer are casual, run-of-the-mill and don't leave an impact.

The film seems to work for Tanuj Virwani as the story revolves around him. Tanuj Virwani, as Urvil Raisingh, is competent. He is cautious and shifty-eyed in some scenes, not because his character demands it of him, but because he is a bit screen shy. He fails to exude the confidence and persona of a self-confessed Casanova. Nevertheless, he pulls it off, as it is in keeping with his screen character. He pairs perfectly with Sunny and Nyra Banerjee.

Sunny's fans would be disappointed with her lack of skin show and on-screen time. Nyra Banerjee is a pleasant surprise.

Ninad Kamat and Narendra Jetley as Urvil's colleagues, along with Khalid Siddiqui as Sunny's husband Adiraj Kapoor, and the rest of the supporting cast are all stock characters.

The songs, "Do peg maro aur bhool jao" and "Ki Kara" mesh well into the narration but do not in any way help in the progression of the tale. The choreography of the dances is perfunctory.

With moderate production values, the film is visually sleek. Cinematographer Rakesh Singh manages to give us some good glossy shots that convey the milieu of the characters' lives effectively.

"One Night Stand" is a bit of a disappointment and as the lyrics of the song go "Do peg maro aur bhool jao" -- do just that.

--IANS

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