There was a time, when pornography was read just in the loo and nobody had an audacity to read it openly on the internet. Over the time, the imagination has been soared out and today one sees penning porn for the drooling generation is a great idea for making money. Unzip that reticence!
In the upcoming film "Mastram", if you are expecting playing peek-a-boo with the porn industry, then you are in for an anti-climax. ‘Mastram’ is a fictional biography of a writer who is ready to exploit his literary skills and persuaded to give porn a chance, just to make ends meet. "Mastram" chronicling the life-story of a man who would be kink (y), is a sad, glum, wistful look at the life of litterateur who was persuaded to give porn a chance, just to make ends meet.
The protagonist becomes the hottest name in pornographic pulp fiction. The director, Akhilesh Jaiswal in his 98 minutes movie has attempted to do a task which is both different and daring, baring all the hypocrisies of the society that disgraces, makes numb and devours sex - all in the same breath. He lets the porn writer Rajaram, aka Mastram, played by Rahul Bagga in the movie, grow in the world with the subject of sex, a synonym for survival. He is persuaded to write dirty books in order to earn his livelihood. Rajaram is a product of consumerist culture. With creditors knocking down his door, he chooses a life after debt.
There is a marked dearth of frantic excitement in the narrative. If seen as a mating game, then "Mastram" is a lazy evening of half-hearted copulation. But, here in Mastram you will set to feel the pain behind the porn by meeting the man behind orgasms, taking the movie far above from pornographic. Jaiswal has torn out the layers of titillation and feels the soreness and solitude of an artist, who is obligated to sell sex when all he wants is to write literary works.
The movie is all about the consciousness and the quandary of a writer, who is torn apart between art and erotica. The problem with the movie is its narration, which is hell lot languid and staler about such an exploring subject. The story lacks resilience, as the background music drags the plot. The film otherwise, would have been something different and would have caught a lot more attention, but due to some of its weaknesses, it is missing its X-factor.
Rajaram (Rahul), a M.A in Hindi, quits his bank job in Manali to pursue his dream of being a novelist. He finds support only in his sanskari wife (Tara), and even after desperate attempts, all publishers reject his literary work because his kahanis have the matter but lack the 'meat'. Realizing that sex sells like hot samosas and lust 'whets' hungry minds over literature, the struggling Premchand in him begins churning out porn-packed in-paperbacks, under the pseudonym of 'Mastram'.
Mastram was India's Shakespeare of sleaze, the bard of the bawdy who controlled all the mind-fornication there was, that held all of North India in its 'jerky' grip through the 80s. Emphasized by a sense of tragedy, "Mastram" brings a contemplative, misery to the porn writer's life.
However, the film fails to succeed due to its narration. If you want to dig deep into the hearts of porn writers, who are otherwise looked down by the hyprocrite society.
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