Wafa - A Deadly Love Story (2008)
Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Laila Khan, Shahib Chopra
Director: Rakesh Sawant
Nutshell:  A sexy thriller with a Hitchcockian touch and a twist that would shame M. Night Shyamalan.  So awful it’s rather good!
Review by Omar Ali Khan

This tawdry thriller brought the illustrious film career of Rajesh Khanna to an appropriately depressing conclusion. The man who had once shone brighter than any other Hindi film star of the late 1960s and early '70s found himself ending his extraordinary journey in the cinematic gutter.

The supporting cast offers little encouragement. Apart from dependable character actor Tinnu Anand, there are no recognisable names of any significance, and the entire enterprise rests squarely upon Khanna's ageing shoulders. The production itself bears all the hallmarks of having been financed by individuals operating at the murkiest end of Bollywood's already murky underworld.

The film opens with a strangely semi-blond Rajesh Khanna playing an obscenely wealthy businessman seemingly on the verge of joining the Forbes rich list. Relaxing beside his lavish swimming pool with his smouldering young wife, he chats away in that uniquely Khannaesque brand of English, proudly discussing the growth of his business "umpire" while his delightfully vacuous sister nods along with appropriate admiration.

Meanwhile, his glamorous wife grows increasingly frustrated as she competes unsuccessfully with business meetings for her husband's attention.

Eventually she demands that he give her a hot oil massage, and before long her already overheated libido begins running riot. Deprived of affection, she starts fantasising not only about her husband but also about the family's chauffeur, who quickly becomes the object of her increasingly uncontrollable desires.

Bina is something of a professional nymphomaniac. She spends much of the film drifting into elaborate daydreams involving semi-naked men worshipping her while she breaks into a succession of sultry musical numbers.

The poor husband, to be fair, makes every conceivable effort to satisfy his wife's rather exhausting appetites. The resulting bedroom scenes are certainly memorable, although perhaps not for the reasons intended. Every time romance threatens to blossom, however, Rajesh Khanna is struck down by another spectacular asthma attack before the crucial moment arrives.

Someone really should have explained to him that an inhaler is supposed to be inhaled rather than sprayed liberally across one's face like expensive perfume. Perhaps billionaires appearing on the Forbes list are issued a more exclusive variety.

Whatever the explanation, the treatment fails spectacularly.

His increasingly frustrated wife is left once again contemplating alternative arrangements.

The chauffeur, Raj, initially appears somewhat taken aback by her advances but eventually proves unable to resist, particularly after Bina rather conveniently drops her towel while he innocently arrives looking for a misplaced set of keys.

It eventually emerges that Bina was once an air hostess who succeeded in charming one of the richest men in the country into marriage. A few blissful years later, however, romance has become something of a struggle as her husband's chronic asthma repeatedly sabotages their marital happiness.

Eventually her patience—and apparently her libido—reaches breaking point.

Together with her obliging chauffeur, she hatches a murderous plan to inherit both freedom and fortune. Naturally, things fail to proceed quite as smoothly as anticipated, and what initially appears to be the perfect crime gradually spirals into catastrophe.

Wafa is dreadful in virtually every department.

Watching an elderly, visibly frail Rajesh Khanna struggle through awkward love scenes while attempting to recapture the trademark romantic mannerisms that once drove an entire generation of fans into hysterics is genuinely painful. It is a cringe-inducing spectacle from beginning to end.

And yet...

...he somehow remains strangely compelling.

Even decades beyond his prime, Khanna still possesses an indefinable screen presence that makes it impossible to look away, no matter how disastrous the material surrounding him becomes.

The songs are uniformly dreadful, although one or two shooting locations are surprisingly attractive. Meanwhile, the action director bears the wonderfully appropriate name of Poo, which somehow feels entirely fitting given the quality of the film.

Objectively speaking, Wafa is an unqualified disaster.

Subjectively speaking, it is enormous fun.

There is something so garish, so spectacularly cheap and so relentlessly tasteless about the entire production that it becomes oddly hypnotic. Laila Khan comfortably steals the picture as the insatiable Bina, throwing herself into the role with admirable enthusiasm and considerably more conviction than the material deserves.

The Sabri Brothers contribute to the soundtrack, lending proceedings a fleeting air of legitimacy, although not even they can rescue this magnificent sleazy wreck from itself.

Released to cinemas, Wafa reportedly managed an occupancy of around five percent during both its opening and closing week—hardly surprising, considering that those weeks were one and the same.

Its lurid awfulness nevertheless kept us thoroughly entertained.

The identity of the director perhaps explains much. Wafa was directed by Rakesh Sawant, better known as the brother of the irrepressible Rakhi Sawant.

The film has acquired an even darker notoriety in retrospect. Laila Khan would later be murdered alongside five members of her family, becoming yet another tragic casualty of the underworld connections that have long haunted sections of the Hindi film industry.

Seen today, Wafa seems to carry the lingering odour of that murky world.

It is an appalling film.

It is also strangely mesmerising.

Sometimes the worst films possess a peculiar magic all their own.