Exploring a Cult from a Wired Perspective
When the original Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010) was released, it was shocking: A triptych of stories, shot in edgy formats, crossing love, lust and betrayal, and a raw footaged and socially voyeuristic aesthetic. 14 years later, Dibakar Banerjee, director of the original, returns with the sequel Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 (or LSD 2) to explore new realities of our hyper-connected, algorithm-obsessed world.
The film tells interlinked stories of a reality show star, a trans sanitation worker, and a gaming influencer: all of them wrestling with identity, exposure, and manipulation in the digital age.
Plot and Character Development Across the Stories
First strand: “Like” – The Reality Show
One segment focuses on Noor (Paritosh Tiwari) – a trans contestant on a flashy reality show “Truth Ya Naach” – where truth and performance meet. Her ambition to break the ratings and social stigma surrounding her, pushes her into staged drama – a reunion with her estranged mother, orchestrated emotional shocks, and the pressure of performing authenticity for the camera every time.
Character realization has multiple layers: Noor’s first impressions convey self-assurance and perhaps even something bordering on antagonism. Gradually, however, the weight of the external gaze and the internal conflict reveals the cracks: the exhaustion of performance, the exhaustion of a façade, the question of who she is when the camera turns off, the question of genuine connection.
In “Share,” the next arc examines corporate marginalization, which centers on Kullu (played by Bonita Rajpurohit), a transgender woman employed in a metro-station cleaning job and who becomes the target of an assault. Kullu’s employer, Lovina (portrayed by Swastika Mukherjee), attempts to navigate corporate PR; the company seeks to present a progressive posture, yet the reality is messy. Kullu’s truth is contested in the aftermath of the assault, her livelihood is threatened, and the corporate lens of “inclusion” folds quite easily.
Kullu’s trauma and the mediation of her identity in public are portrayed in a complex manner. Lovina’s transformation from token ally to a figure complicit in suppression shows the peeling of layers in the discourse where social justice and corporate branding, corporate power and social justice, meet.
Third strand: “Download” — Influencers, Identity & Virtual Collapse
The protagonist here is Shubham (Abhinav Singh), “GamePaapi” — a young gaming-influencer, who dreams of becoming an influencer with millions of followers. His dreams are cut short when a deep-fake video of him performing a sexual act is leaked; his identity is captured and subsequently hijacked. His following rapidly increases, but he becomes a passive spectator losing control in his own narrative. In his desperation, he takes refuge in a strange metaverse with avatars and virtual selves where real life is forgotten.
Character progression: Shubham goes from a self-assured influencer to losing all sense of self; he becomes a target of shame. The film uses his breakdown to show how digital fame, losing your identity, and disassociation can all happen in an instant as a vicious cycle.
The Human Stories Behind the Camera
When Banerjee returned to the project, he recognized how the terrain had shifted. What was shocking in 2010 (CCTV, MMS, surveillance) is now every day (algorithms, social media, virtual selves). Producer Ektaa Kapoor announced the film, and commented that the sequel would focus on social media addiction and the obsession with ‘likes’.
Shooting began in mid-2023, with reports stating that the team constructed reality-show sets, gaming studios, and VR/Metaverse segments that closely aligned with the film’s visual world.
Bonita Rajpurohit, a transgender actress, gave authenticity to the role of Kullu. The production gave attention to the nuances of identy and the nuances of the pressures of performance for underrepresented marginalized individuals, although some critics felt the portrayal was uneven.
One of the difficulties was the tone. The editing needed to combine a satirical take on media culture and a sci-fi style metaverse narrative that included disparate trauma while also keeping the raw-footage aesthetic of the original. Some critics felt that, in the end, style was prioritized to the detriment of narrative coherence.
The original film is a classic in the Indian offbeat cinema space, and the sequel was expected to provide a digitally relevant film that pushed boundaries. The announcement for the sequel and the promotional material for the film signaled a return to the triptych format , which used the title ‘Like-Share-Download’ in comparison to the original’s more simplistic ‘Love-Sex-Betrayal’.
Critically, the reception was mixed. Some praised the ambition, the performances and the relevance of themes. Others found the narrative cluttered and less sharp than the original. For example, The Times of India comment: “Technically proficient … but stories are cluttered, confusing, lacking flow.”
On the box-office side, the film faced a limited run and tough competition. One Reddit post citing director Banerjee remarked on how a “huge film” had booked many screens just before LSD2, restricting its reach. The thematic weight—trans protagonists, metaverse weirdness, satire of media—likely limited its mass commercial appeal, though it may build long-term via streaming.
Why This Sequel Matters (and Where It Stumbles)
What makes Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 worth attention is how it takes a concept rooted in voyeurism and surveillance and updates it for a world where everyone is both viewer and viewed, subject and object. The first story’s trans protagonist on reality-TV, the second story’s marginalised worker exposed by corporate and state systems, the third story’s influencer undone by the very audience he courts—all reflect changing power dynamics in the media age.
The film attempts bold work but falters to some extent. There are times when the three narratives feel like standalone features rather than interconnected sections. The metaverse segment, for example, received negative reception for being chaotic and over the top.
Nonetheless, there are the actors negotiating the balance and the filmmakers negotiating the form and the production figuring the fine line of the film-turned-public cinema. The film mirrors its content: the price the film pays for being “there”, for performing to the audiences becomes apparent—a case of “being there” but losing something critical in the process.
The Continuously Shifting Heritage
As a sequel, Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2, more than anything else, serves as an experiment. It draws attention to the dramatic changes our media-ecosystem has undergone in the 2010s and the emotional and moral costs of those changes. It provides the director, Banerjee, a fresh lens to explore the issues of exposure and betrayal when one has control over a whole new set of tools: the metaverse, algorithms, and influencer culture.
The film might lack the excellent polish of its predecessor, but its eagerness to explore the interrogation of a validation-fixated generation and its focus on the marginalised identities in that reflection are what provides the film with the much needed pulsation.
The omnipresent camera is a powerful tool that not only registers reality but also shapes, distorts, and, at times, involves a betrayal of what is captured. This is precisely what the title suggests: Love. Sex. Aur Dhokha. Yet, we might add, Likes. Shares. Downloads.
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