Raqeeb Movie Review: Raqeeb: Somewhere in between

One didn't go to this film with any expectations. And that worked. The film doesn't let one down. Terribly, that is. It is a thriller, but not the best of them. The story has nothing original to it. Scheming, gold-digger of a wife, plans her rich husband's murder with her lover. There are further twists in the story, added ostensibly to keep the interest going. But debutant director Anurag Singh borrows from a lot of places with some of them more obvious than others. He definitely doesn't have a winner on his hands but something which kind of chugs along. Again not the best recipe for a thriller. The film does pick up pace wise at least, post-interval.

The storyline runs somewhat like this. Remo (Rahul Khanna) is a rich businessman. He lost his parents in a car accident years ago and is asthmatic. A loner and an introvert, the only person he is close to is Siddharth (Sharman Joshi), an employee and friend. Siddharth is an extrovert and is dying to set up Remo with a girl. Remo isn't exactly enthralled by the idea so Siddharth plays a prank on him and sets up a blind date for him. The girl is Sophie (Tanusree Dutta), an actress by profession. The inevitable happens and they fall in love.

There are hurdles along the way but Remo pops the question, after being prompted by Siddharth to do so. Into this Garden of Eden enters the snake, sorry, we mean Jummy Shergill, who plays Sunny, an aspiring actor who was in love with Sophie. But she never took the relationship further as she knew that Sunny could never give her the cushy life she so desired. But the chemistry between them hasn't died as yet. When they, the past gets rekindled as very soon they are in the throes of a torrid affair. The idea of getting rid of the husband takes birth as the lovers see Remo as an obstacle in their path.

So the lovers hatch a plan to kill him. Since he is asthmatic, the plan is to hide his medicines and trigger an attack. Once Remo is in the throes of the attack, Sunny is supposed to shoot him with fake bullets, which is supposed to induce a worse attack of asthma, ultimately claiming his life. So the post mortem would show death by natural causes and no one would be any wiser. But on the actual day, when Sunny arrives to play his part in the plan, he finds that he has been double crossed by Sophie, who has been stringing him along all the time, along with Remo and his friend. Of course, the prime suspect is revealed in the end. And Singh's makes a good attempt to keep the audience guessing about the actual culprit and his motive. (he is the story writer as well).

Such is the story. The suspense could have been built better with a more taunt screenplay. But in all, like one said in the beginning, it kind of works.

Of the actors, it is a pleasure to see Rahul Khanna on screen. He fits into his part of the suave businessman very well. Tanusree Dutta as the scheming, ambitious wife has a good role in the film, and she succeeds in portraying the character. But pray, what is the connection between a scheming woman in Hindi films and skimpy and oh, so tacky outfits? Jimmy Shergill is good in the his role as the obsessed lover. But the one really worth watching is Sharman Joshi. This actor has come a long way from the B grade comedies that he began his career with. Even in the recent Metro, he played his role of the ambitious call centre employee very well. And he is eminently watchable as the friend in Raqeeb too. He is quite effortless in his performance as Siddharth.

Raqeeb's music is by Pritam, who recently created a mini dhoom with his music for Anurag Basu's Metro. The music doesn't quite have that magic but it still has a foot tapping quality to it. Pleasant without being great.

Without any great fireworks in terms of acting, script, music or treatment, Raqeeb manages to slip in and find its place. Mediocre fare at the best.