After the Miss Lovely premiere in Cannes, Jonathan Romney of leading UK film magazine Sight & Sound stated, "A SHORT LIVED word for Miss Lovely in Un Certain Regard. This started out as a shock to the system - an Indian film like I'd never seen." At the director, Ashim Ahluwalia, Romney says, "He's an excessively impressive talent, and given the oppressive conventions of the Indian film industry, he's clearly an independent spirit after which some."
Early reviewers expecting a thriller were taken off-guard by the film's strong art-house style and weird storytelling technique. They will was too quick to write down it off, however, as major international critics have since weighed in.
Alissa Simon of Variety says, "Ashim Ahluwalia makes an excellent transition to features with Miss Lovely, an atmospheric tragedy set within the sordid world of Bombay's exploitation-film industry through the late 1980s. Folks that flow will find the joys is within the Mumbai-born, Bard College-trained helmer's bravura and baroque visual style, person who owes as much to docu and experimental filmmakers as to Scorsese, Welles and von Sternberg, plunging viewers into the characters' social milieu."
Simon Jablonski of AnOther Magazine writes: "Among all that glitters at Cannes Film Festival, there has been little quite as visually spectacular as Miss Lovely, directed by Ashim Ahluwalia as a part of India's New Wave scene. Constantly moving and switching between genre pieces - a gangster flick then a love story then an art house film. Stylistically it's harking back to 90s Chinese cinema corresponding to Chungking Express than anything you'd go together with the Bollywood tradition."
Since its premiere in Cannes, there was growing international interest within the usual film and the director. On May 25th, The brand new York Times and International Herald Tribune carried full-page profiles on Miss Lovely titled "Mumbai within the Bad Old Days."
Miss Lovely has since been sold to various international territories including to distributor Ad Vitam of France.
