ROMANCE / THRILLER

Starring Fardeen Khan, Urmila Matondkar, Sonali Kulkarni

Directed by Rajat Mukherjee

Music by Sandeep Chowtha

Ram Gopal Verma produces this new movie but has signed on his assistant Rajat Mukherjee to direct this one and shall bring together once again the JUNGLE duo of Fardeen Khan and Urmila Matondkar.

 This movie is loosely based on the Hollywood flick 'FATAL ATTRACTION' and we have Fardeen boy playing the role of a photographer Jai, and one journey he finds a beautiful lady Ria (Urmila Matondkar) on the shores of Goa. Smitten by the beauty, he can't resist clicking away a couple of snaps without her knowledge. And though Ria refuses him to take any more snaps, Jai goes ahead and actually uses these photos for the cover of a new magazine being launched by his ad company. 

But when the ad company boss insists on having Ria itself for the next month's cover too. So it is upto Jai to get Ria to oblige. But Ria is a rich spoilt brat of a rich industrialist (Suresh Oberoi) and her stubborness and anger knows no limits. But still the charm of Jai gets to her and she agrees ultimately.

But with the photo-sessions that follow, Ria begins to fall in love with Jai. And Jai on the other hand is as flirtatious as always, which Ria mistakes for love. 

So Ria goes ahead with the possibilities of marrying him and it is only when she lands up at his place that she realises that Jai is a married man and is shocked to meet Geeta(Sonali Kulkarni), his wife.

Now a shell-shocked Ria is confused and shaken, but certainly not stirred. For she is determined to win Jai's love. And even when Jai tries to reason out with both Ria and his wife Geeta, as to where exactly he stand in all this, Ria is all more aggressive in her attempts. And so she keeps stalking him, ready to go to any depths or heights to win back her love!

    To begin with the beauty of this movie is that it sticks to its claim, "All love stories are not pleasant". The makers do not try to make things any pleasant for the moviegoers and definitely gives us a wholesome product that needs to be appreciated.

Urmila seems to have given what is undoubtedly one of her best performances to date in Bollywood. She truly emerges as the ace of this movie, and literally is a nucleus of the whole thing. While the first half, the scenes highlights her figure and beauty, the second half gives her ample scope to perform and that exactly she does. 

So while her earlier success RANGEELA was all about her looks, this one has both looks as well as commendable acting to go with it. Maybe you have seen her in similar shades in KAUN, but here she plays a more well-defined character. 

Fardeen Khan and Sonali Kulkarni also plays their role ably. Fardeen has enough impressions and expressions to carry him through, while Sonali too does a pretty good job though she comes late in the movie.

Another major plus factor of the movie is the music of Sandeep Chowtha, which again, is his career best too. 

Funky at times, sensuous at times, and even dark at times, Sandeep Chowtha seems to shift moods so easily and the very fact that none of the songs looks jammed into the narration shall help its cause. But at times it is loud, but nevertheless effective. 

The magic is evident when Sukhvinder croons "Kambakth Ishq" and the audience goes frenzy. Special mentions to  Nitin Kaikwar for the lyrics, and Ganesh Hegde for choreographing the number while pop video director Sanjay F. Gupta for directing the music video.

Choreography and picturisation also are commendable factors, and certainly it is one of the most complete movies that have come out of the Bollywood stables so far.

Though obviously it is going to be the Ram Gopal Varma factor that is going to draw in the crowds to the theatres, the director Rajat Mukherjee has proved that he is a very focussed director indeed. He really has worked on the script and each and every scene in advance, enabling the narration to flow without the usual unwanted hiccups.

The only place where a bit of sub-plot runs is thankfully, in the earlier half, and this comedy track between Rajpal Yadav and ........ just brings back some good ol' memories of SATYA, and certainly is enjoyable.

However the drawbacks that come out of the movie, is that the narration has a very western style to it. And even Sandeep Chowtha's background score is more like one of a Hollywood film. Impressive, but to how many is the question?

Moreover the fact that a female can go all out this manner for a guy is not exactly what the Indian crowd can digest all around. So as a result, this movie will be more appreciated in the city centres than in other areas of the country.

But business-wise, however it does, this is frankly the best movie to come out of Bollywood so far this year. It does not compromise, does not go wayward, and sticks to its tasks, that too in style.