One Night Stand

By Hiba Taha Usmani

Sometimes one simply wants to watch a senseless movie that requires little thinking and
doesnt leave one thinking about the world they live in. Other times, one desires a movie that
opens the mind to new realizations. One Night Stand turns out to be a movie that is both and
neither. The film appears to be confused about what it is actually about: is it just a romantic film
about a steamy affair that leads to an obsession or a thought provoking film about infidelity and
societys hypocritical attitude towards it. The film opens with our two leads: Urvil (Tanuj
Virwani) and Celina (Sunny Leone). Urvil works for an event managing company that meets and
flirts with Celina at a restaurant. The two end up having a one night stand and Celina leaves the
next morning. Urvil, a man married to his unsuspecting wife for five years, ends up obsessing
over Celina; he frantically tries to find her and stalks and harasses her with his constant calls.
Celina does not wish to reciprocate his feelings as she herself is happily married with a child.
The film tries to build itself up by portraying the harms of infidelity. The film raises
questions about prejudices our society holds when it comes to sexual freedom. We are more livid
at the married woman indulging in a one-time affair as compared to the married man who has
multiple flings and becomes an obsessive abusive character. However, the weak writing and
lacklustre acting leave the audience unimpressed. There appears to be no proper flow to the film:
it goes from hot and sultry to sombre and dark within seconds, leaving the audience feeling
slightly jilted. The film also seems to be relying heavily on the sultry scenes in order to carry the
weak writing and the serious feminist scenes which are supposed to be the backbone of the film
take a backseat instead.
The acting is honestly just embarrassing. The actors fail to appropriately fill the shoes of
their characters. Many times, they act unimpressed and dull when in fact they should be
outraged. Other times, there is an overuse of facial expressions, especially by Leone. That being
said, it was refreshing to see the actress play a role that was not centred on her beauty and her
sexuality. Watching her take on the role of a caring housewife and a loving mother was
interesting and had the writing been better, she probably would have been able to pull it off very
well. She also managed to perform better than her co-star Virwani who lacks the maturity to play
the seasoned and mature character of Urvil. The two leads sadly lack any real chemistry causing
the already stiff acting to appear even more wooden and unrealistic.
One Night Stand raises some important questions about the double standards in the
society. However, the movie failed to keep the audience interested due to cheesy dialogues and
dull acting.