Ajnabee (2001 film)
| Ajnabee | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Abbas-Mustan |
| Produced by | Vijay Galani |
| Screenplay by |
Sanjeev Duggal Neeraj Vora Robin Bhatt Shyam Goel |
| Story by | Neeraj Vora |
| Starring |
Akshay Kumar Bobby Deol Kareena Kapoor Bipasha Basu |
| Music by |
Songs: Anu Malik Background Score: Surinder Sodhi |
| Cinematography | Rajan Kinagi |
| Edited by | Hussain A Burmawala |
| Distributed by | Film Folks, Venus Records & Tapes Pvt Ltd |
Release dates | 21 September 2001 |
Running time | 165 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹190 million (US$2.8 million) |
| Box office | ₹470 million (US$7.0 million) |
Ajnabee (Hindi: अजनबी, English: Stranger) is a 2001 Bollywood suspense thriller film directed by Abbas-Mustan and produced by Vijay Galani. It stars Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor and debutant Bipasha Basu in the lead with Johnny Lever, Dalip Tahil, Narendra Bedi and Sharat Saxena in supporting roles. The film is an adaptation of the 1992 American thriller Consenting Adults, directed by Alan J. Pakula. It was the second film of Akshay Kumar and Abbas-Mustan after Khiladi.
Plot
Raj and Priya (Kareena Kapoor) meet by chance and fall in love. They marry with Priya's father's (Dalip Tahil) consent and reside in Switzerland, where they meet an Indian couple: Vikram Bajaj (Akshay Kumar) and Sonia (Bipasha Basu). The couples quickly become friends and decide to go on a Christmas vacation to Mauritius.
There, Raj sees Vikram with another woman, looking intimate. Sonia begins to try to seduce Raj. When Vikram notices Raj looking at Sonia and talks to him about wife swapping, this upsets Raj and a fight breaks out between them. However, a couple of days later, the two couples become friends again. On Vikram's birthday, the two men get drunk and find themselves in each other's house. The next morning Raj goes jogging where he thinks about Vikram and Priya having sex.
After some time Sonia is found dead, and Raj is accused of her murder. Raj manages to escape from court, and the Swiss police chase him. He meets Priya, who eventually believes his innocence and aids him in finding proof. When he decides to search Vikram's house, Vikram interrupts him midway, tells him that everything was planned by him, and calls the police. Raj escapes in Vikram's car with Priya.
Raj finds a boarding pass that belongs to Sonia Bajaj, which states that Sonia arrived in Zurich on 29 December—however, Sonia was supposedly murdered that night. Raj suspects her to be the woman he saw with Vikram, traveling to Geneva together. In Geneva, Raj meets an insurance officer who is trying to find evidence that Vikram was involved in the death of his wife to get the life insurance payment of $100 million that was on Sonia. Raj gives him the boarding pass, which is enough for them to stop the payment, but it's too late. Vikram has received it and transferred it to his account. Raj hacks into Vikram's bank account and sees that he has transferred the money to a cruise ship. They follow him there. There, they see Vikram dancing with a woman who is revealed to be Sonia, alive and well.
In the climax, Vikram explains the whole plan to Raj that the woman he saw in Mauritus was his wife Sonia Bajaj (Mink Brar) and the woman with him that they were introduced to is his girlfriend Neeta (Bipasha Basu). At first, he was only a drummer and Neeta was a dancer. He wanted to get rich, so he married a rich woman and approved an insurance of his wife for $100 millio. He thought of a plan to kill his wife to get the amount of the insurance.
Raj takes Vikram to a computer to show him his bank account. He tells him that he had guessed his password, "Everything is planned", something that Vikram used to say a lot, and used it to transfer the money back to the insurance company. He also reveals that everything Vikram said had been recorded. A fight erupts between the two and Neeta dies in the conflict. Angered at losing Neeta, Vikram gets aggressive, killing the insurance officer and seemingly kill Raj. He chases Priya to kill her, too. Raj appears and saves her. Vikram dies when he is stuck by an anchor. Now proved innocent, Raj and Priya move back to India.
Cast
- Akshay Kumar as Vikram Bajaj (Vicky)
- Bobby Deol as Raj Malhotra
- Kareena Kapoor as Priya Malhotra
- Bipasha Basu as Neeta (fake Sonia Bajaj)
- Mink Brar as Sonia Bajaj
- Johny Lever as Banu Pradhan (BP)
- Amita Nangia as Champa Devi
- Dalip Tahil as Priya's father
- Sharat Saxena as the insurance officer
- Sheela Sharma as Vina Chandra Devi
- Narendra Bedi as Lakhan Pal (LP)
Soundtrack
| Ajnabee | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Soundtrack album by Anu Malik | |
| Released | 2001 |
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Length | 50:38 |
| Label | Tips Music |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Planet Bollywood |    [1] |
The soundtrack for Ajnabee is composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics are penned by Sameer. It is released by Tips Music.[2]
In 2011, ten years after the release of Ajnabee, Malik claimed that the song "Character Dheela" from the film Ready is an unauthorised copy of the song "Mohabbat Naam Hai" while informing the media that he will likely file a suit against composer, Pritam for plagiarism.[3]
| No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Mohabbat Naam Hai" | Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik | 6:19 |
| 2 | "Mehbooba Mehbooba" | Adnan Sami, Sunidhi Chauhan | 7:27 |
| 3 | "Meri Zindagi Mein Ajnabee" | Kumar Sanu, Sunidhi Chauhan | 6:57 |
| 4 | "Mujhko Neend Aa Rahi Hai" | Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan | 4:46 |
| 5 | "Dance Music" | Anu Malik | 1:22 |
| 6 | "Kaun Main Haan Tum" | Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu | 6:44 |
| 7 | "Kasam Se Teri Aankhen Aaiya Re Aaiya" | Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Hema Sardesai | 5:55 |
| 8 | "Jab Tumhe Aashiqui Maloom" | Kumar Sanu | 6:48 |
| 9 | "Mehbooba Mehbooba (E-Groove Mix)" | Adnan Sami, Sunidhi Chauhan, DJ Khalif | 4:20 |
Production
Originally, actress Mahek Chahal was cast in the role of Neeta (Fake Sonia) which eventually was given to Bipasha Basu. The climax of the film was shot in Muscat, Dubai and Bahrain on the Indian-owned cruise liner Ocean Majesty. [4]
Reception
Ajnabee received mostly mixed reviews from critics. The performance of Akshay Kumar was praised.
At the box office, the film opened well, and collected 420 million on its nett gross opening weekend, with a full gross of 470 million worldwide. It was declared "hit" at the box office.
References
- ↑ Bahra, Mandeep. "Music Review – Ajnabee". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Ajnabee (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes. iTunes. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ↑ "Character Dheela- a copy of my song: Anu Malik". NDTV. Indo-Asian News Service. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ↑ http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/1220754/