Ajnabee (2001 film)

Ajnabee is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by Vijay Galani. It stars Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu, with Johnny Lever, Dalip Tahil, Narendra Bedi and Sharat Saxena in supporting roles. In the film, a man goes on the run after being framed for the murder of his neighbour's wife. The film was identified as an unofficial adaptation of the 1992 American thriller Consenting Adults. The music was composed by Anu Malik.

The film was released on 21 September 2001 and received mixed reviews from the critics with praise for the performances of Kumar and Basu but was a moderate success at box office, grossing ₹31 crore against the budget of ₹17 crore. Kumar won Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role while Basu won Best Female Debut.

Plot
Raj and Priya Malhotra move to Switzerland, where they meet their Indian neighbors, Vikram and Sonia Bajaj. All of them quickly become friends and go on a Christmas vacation together to Mauritius.

During their vacation, Raj sees Vikram kissing another woman. A confused Raj becomes even more shocked as Sonia starts hitting on him. He rejects her which Vikram finds out. As Sonia becomes more forward in her advances, Vicky manipulates the scenario leading to Raj and Sonia getting paired while himself (Vicky) getting paired with Priya. On the last day, Vicky casually talks to Raj about partner-swapping. Vicky eagerly suggests they should also too try it out and suggests Raj To enjoy with Sonia and Vicky simultaneously request Raj to Let Himself (Vicky) to Enjoy with Priya for the night. Raj is disgusted by the offer, and an argument breaks out between the men. With Priya being unaware of the whole situation going around her, she manages to reconcile Raj and Vicky on the eve of Vicky's birthday a few days later. The two men celebrate by getting drunk together. Vicky Again suggests Raj to become Vicky and asks whether he(Vicky) could become Raj just for the night and manages to send a drunk Raj into his house, while he goes on to Raj's house to meet Priya.

The next day Raj wakes up to find a partially clothed woman in bed with him and realizes he was tricked and is in Vicky's house. He quickly runs back to his house only to see Priya happy and relaxed. He enquires if Vicky Came over last night to which Priya confirms Vicky coming over as Raj had sent him over. She stated she fulfilled his request when he came over as it was his birthday and didn't want him to feel disappointed on his birthday by refusing to give what he was asking from her. She further states it should not be a regular occurrence but won't mind if it's on special occasions. After listening to what Priya just unapologetically said, Raj goes for a run. Unable to forget what Priya had said, he thinks Vicky did successfully convince Priya to continue Wife-Swapping overnight by seducing her and they romanced each other with wild passion in every corner of the house and ended the night with Vicky enjoying his birthday gift of having wild sex with Priya. Next Sonia is found dead and Raj is accused of her murder since his fingerprints are found on the murder weapon – an alcohol bottle. Vicky claims how the idea of wife swapping came from Raj, and while Vicky just spent the night in Raj's house, Raj tried to force Sonia and later killed her. Determined to prove his innocence, Raj manages to escape from the court and is chased by the Swiss police. He meets Priya, who eventually believes in his innocence and aids him in finding out what really happened. Their neighbors, the Malhotras recall that Vicky entered the house the night of the murder with someone. They decide to search Vikram's house, only to be interrupted by Vikram, who calls the police and then reveals that everything was planned in advance. Raj escapes in a car with Priya.

Raj finds a boarding pass that belongs to Sonia Bajaj, which states that Sonia arrived in Zürich from Geneva on 29 December. However, Sonia was supposedly murdered on that night. Raj suspects her as the woman he saw with Vikram in Mauritius. They travel to Geneva, where Raj meets an insurance officer who is trying to find evidence that Vikram was involved in the death of his wife in order to receive her life insurance of $100 million. Working with the insurance agent, Raj traces Vikram to a cruise ship. There, he sees Vikram dancing with a woman revealed to be 'Sonia' alive and well. Raj confronts Vikram, who finally explains the devious plan – the woman he kissed in Mauritius was his actual wife, Sonia Bajaj. In contrast, the woman with him is his girlfriend, Neeta. Vikram, a struggling musician, married wealthy heiress Sonia and convinced her to take out an insurance plan of $100 million on herself. He then formulated a plan with Neeta to have Sonia killed and get the insurance money.

Vikram boasts about pinning the murder on Raj. However, Raj takes Vikram to a computer and shows him his empty bank account. Raj says that he had guessed the password, "Everything is planned", something that Vikram used to say a lot, and used it to transfer the money back to the insurance company. Raj also reveals that everything Vikram said has 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. He chases Priya to kill her, but Raj impales Vikram with an anchor from the cruise ship, killing him. Raj and Priya return to India.

Cast

 * Akshay Kumar as Vikram "Vicky" Bajaj
 * Bobby Deol as Raj Malhotra
 * Kareena Kapoor as Priya Malhotra, Raj's wife.
 * Bipasha Basu as Neeta, Vikram's girlfriend / fake Sonia Bajaj
 * Johnny Lever as Bhanu Pradhan
 * Amita Nangia as Champa Devi
 * Dalip Tahil as Priya's father
 * Sharat Saxena as Insurance Officer
 * Sheela Sharma as Veena Chandra Devi
 * Narendra Bedi as Lakhan Pal
 * Mink Brar as real Sonia Bajaj (special appearance)

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. Initially Shah Rukh Khan was offered the role of Akshay Kumar, but he was not keen on playing a gray character.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Ajnabee is composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics, penned by Sameer. It is released by Tips Music.

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 sue composer Pritam for plagiarism. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 22,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's sixth highest-selling.

Box office
The film grossed ₹ 31.83 crore worldwide.

Critical response
Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, writing ″On the whole, AJNABEE tackles an audacious theme that the Indian audience will find hard to absorb and identify with. The film, which boasts of impressive names on and off the screen, will attract the audiences for the first few days, but its fall is imminent after the initial euphoria settles. A heavy price tag will also prove a deterrent for its investors.″ Sarita Tanwar of Rediff.com wrote ″It has been shot at exotic locations, but the film has a shoddy feel to it. The camerawork jars; the filmmakers lose control of the script at the climax, when vague scenes are pieced together. The comic relief, spearheaded by Johny Lever, is loud and the insipid humour goes overboard. Sadly, this bold attempt is in vain. Ajnabee could have been the precursor of the new niche thriller. But its makers haven't displayed enough bravado. Watch Ajnabee once. Not for what it is. But for what it could have been.

In a retrospective review on film's 20th anniversary, Sampada Sharma of The Indian Express wrote ″Ajnabee's world has people doing net banking in a way that makes you go 'What!?' and characters planning schemes that are half-witted to begin with, yet it makes you stick around for its performative dialogues, over-the-top acting and a plot so dramatic that you continue to watch just to see what bizarre thing will happen next. It's been 20 years since we saw this beautiful, delicious mess and revisiting it now is still a chuckle-worthy experience.″

Filmfare Awards

 * Won
 * Best Villain – Akshay Kumar
 * Best Female Debut – Bipasha Basu
 * Nominated
 * Best Comedian – Johnny Lever
 * Best Male Playback Singer – Adnan Sami for "Mehbooba Mehbooba"