Ajnabee (2001)
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu
Director: Abbas Mustan
Music Director: Anu Malik
Synopsis: Bollywood reworking of Consenting Adults...Wife swapping - Shock! Horror!
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Abbas-Mustan, the self-proclaimed kings of the thriller, return with yet another reworking of a Hollywood hit—this time Consenting Adults. The directors are, of course, no strangers to "adaptations". Baazigar was essentially A Kiss Before Dying, Daraar borrowed heavily from Sleeping with the Enemy, and their debut Khiladi was also lifted from somewhere, although for the life of me I can't remember where. Does it really matter if the end result provides a few thrills? After all, how many of us had actually seen the Kevin Kline–Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio original anyway?

Well...

I had.

And I was rather curious to see how our desi auteurs would "adapt" a story built around wife-swapping.

Not a great deal can be revealed about the plot without spoiling it, so we'll stick to the basics.

Three chance encounters—in a mandir, a mosque and a church—inevitably bring together Priya and Raj (Kareena Kapoor and Bobby Deol), who promptly get married and head off to Switzerland. Not for a honeymoon, mind you, but because Raj apparently has a polo tournament or something equally exciting to attend.

While speeding through the countryside, Raj almost runs over a dusky beauty named Sonia (Bipasha Basu), who has an unfortunate habit of cycling directly into the path of moving vehicles.

The following day, Raj wanders past her house and is lured inside by the sound of a piano. There he finds Sonia, clad in a rather revealing blue dress, somehow managing to play the piano with one hand while simultaneously bouncing across sofas, slithering over the piano itself and generally dancing around the room for nobody's benefit but her own.

It looks utterly ridiculous.

Our dopey hero, however, is completely mesmerised.

Raj soon meets Sonia's husband, Vicky (Akshay Kumar), and before long the two couples become firm friends. To ensure nobody takes the proceedings too seriously, Abbas-Mustan also throw in another quartet of resident desis whose sole purpose appears to be providing comic relief.

By now we've endured four songs and precious little has actually happened.

Following one of Vicky's elaborate publicity stunts, the foursome travel to Mauritius, where Sonia wastes no time making a play for Raj. He rejects her advances, prompting her to leap dramatically into approximately three feet of water and pretend to drown.

Had Raj only administered the kiss of life, things might have become considerably more interesting.

Unfortunately, Priya and Vicky return from parasailing before anything can happen, and Sonia is whisked back to the hotel. Remarkably, by the very next scene she has recovered sufficiently to launch into yet another lavish song-and-dance routine.

I should perhaps also mention that Raj, who appears to have developed an unfortunate habit of sneaking into other people's houses, earlier catches a glimpse of Sonia in a rather advanced state of undress.

Whether this indicates genuine attraction...

or merely proves that all men like to look...

I'll leave you to decide.

The stage is now set.

During an evening of male bonding, Vicky casually suggests that the two couples swap wives for the night.

Punch.

Friendship over.

Raj and Priya return to Switzerland, closely followed by Vicky and Sonia. Everybody spends a while sulking before Vicky gradually worms his way back into Raj's good books. Then, during his birthday celebrations, fuelled by drink, he makes exactly the same indecent proposal once again.

Another punch.

Only this time Raj unexpectedly walks into Vicky's house.

The next morning he wakes up at home to find Sonia asleep beside him. Racing back to his own house, he discovers Priya fresh from the shower, happily delivering dialogue laced with double entendres, sending Raj into an immediate fit of jealous paranoia.

Returning to Vicky's house, he learns that Sonia has been murdered.

Now...

this is where the fun ought to begin.

Unfortunately...

it doesn't.

From this point onwards the film becomes surprisingly pedestrian. The biggest problem is that the identity of the murderer is revealed far too early, leaving the audience with little to do except work out the mechanics of the crime. Even that proves disappointingly predictable once the clues begin to emerge.

Abbas-Mustan rather flunk this one, much as they did with Daraar. Their insistence on inserting comedy at regular intervals further slows the pace, although thankfully the humour is nowhere near as unbearable as it might have been. The biggest obstacle, however, is the central premise itself. Wife-swapping simply isn't a subject that sits comfortably within mainstream Bollywood, creating an immediate credibility problem that the film never quite overcomes.

The result is a thriller that keeps the viewer mildly interested...

but never remotely enthralled.

Bobby Deol spends much of the film looking as though he has wandered onto the wrong set altogether. Perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising, given the well-publicised tensions between him and Kareena Kapoor during production. Kareena does reasonably well with what is essentially a rather thankless role. Akshay Kumar fares considerably better than Bobby and deserves credit for tackling such an unconventional character. Bipasha Basu, making her debut, acquits herself rather well too, although I could have happily done without watching her paw that unfortunate piano.

The music has proved popular, particularly Adnan Sami's hit "Mehbooba", although the film could certainly have survived with rather fewer songs.

All in all, this is a disappointment from the house of Abbas-Mustan.