Ek Hasina Thi (film)

Ek Hasina Thi (English: There Was A Beautiful Woman) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir thriller film directed by Sriram Raghavan and produced by Ram Gopal Varma. Urmila Matondkar and Saif Ali Khan star in the lead roles. The screenplay was by Sriram Raghavan and Pooja Ladha Surti. The film borrows elements from the Sidney Sheldon story If Tomorrow Comes. In her review, critic Ronjita Kulkarni said it's "loosely based" on Double Jeopardy, while "the film also adapts a scene from The Bone Collector." The film premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival. The film is usually considered one of the best works of Urmila Matondkar, Saif Ali Khan and director Sriram Raghavan.

Plot
Sarika is a single woman who stays alone in Mumbai and works at a travel agency. She meets Karan by chance who she smites. Though she initially resists his advances, she eventually gives in to his charms and moves in with him. Life is good, and one day Karan requests Sarika to host one of his friends for a few hours when he won't be home. Sarika agrees, and Karan's friend turns up with a suitcase at Sarika's place and goes out. It's not until the evening news she sees the police is looking for the same man and have labelled him as a wanted criminal. Sarika is shocked and calls Karan, who tells her to get rid of the suitcase. Sarika steps out with the suitcase and is intercepted by cops who arrest her. Karan requests her to speak to his lawyer Kamlesh Mathur and not to take his name anywhere in this investigation. The attorney advises her to confess to the crime, convincing her that since she has no criminal record and no prior convictions, the judge will accept her mistake as the first time and let her go.

Sarika complies after being convinced that the judge will give her a light sentence and might even set her free for co-operating with law enforcement. But, the judge sentences her to seven years without parole. Sarika then realises that Karan and his attorney have cheated her. Karan is an associate to the underworld and that he had her framed to keep police away from him. This realisation is soon followed by the death of her father, the ongoing ordeal of prison life and her hatred towards Karan. An elder inmate Pramila, who has contacts outside prison, decides to help her. Sarika undergoes a complete makeover.

Sarika transforms herself, inside and out, beginning with her getting rid of her fear of rats. She beats up an abusive inmate Gomati who constantly bullies her. She plans an audacious escape from prison in which she succeeds along with a few inmates. Karan is notified about her escape by Kamlesh Mathur, but Karan gives no further thought. ACP Malti Vaidya sets out to find Sarika. Sarika first confronts attorney Mathur. She kills him after learning Karan's whereabouts. Sarika learns that Karan works for a gangster who has many illegal operations and is in Delhi.

Sarika finds Karan in Delhi with his new girlfriend. She takes a room right opposite to Karan's so that she can keep an eye out. She trails him day and night, without arousing suspicion. ACP Malti Vaidya tracks Sarika when she mistakenly calls her mother from a prepaid SIM in Delhi. Karan, in the meantime, is in trouble with a local gangster, Sanjeev, for not laundering money on time. He is picked up from a nightclub by Sanjeev's henchmen and is hauled to his place where he is threatened to clear his dues ASAP or face dire consequences. The whole exchange is witnessed by Sarika secretly. As soon as Karan leaves the room Sanjeev is found killed and suspicion falls on Karan.

Karan and his girlfriend are attacked in the hotel that leaves his new girlfriend and a few henchmen dead. He escapes just in time as ACP Malti reaches his hotel suite in pursuit of Sarika. Karan is bewildered at Sanjeev's death and his close shave with death, wondering if a rival gang bumped off Sanjeev.

Meanwhile, Sarika pretends to run into him. She pretends to have sympathy for him. Karan decides to play with her for some time because she still has not seen through his game. Karan confronts a man whom he suspects to be a traitor, but he believes that somebody else could have snuck in after Karan went out. Before the man can say anything, Karan kills him.

Sarika is amused as Karan gets entangled in a cat-and-mouse game. She steals money from Karan's boss, for which Karan is again suspected. However, Karan soon realises the plot. After he confronts and assaults her, she shocks him by telling him that she has burnt the money. Karan takes her to his boss and makes her confess at gunpoint. But she feigns ignorance and claims that Karan made her say so. As his boss's goons attack Karan, he breaks into a fight. Just then, the ACP enters with the police.

In a shootout, the ACP succeeds in killing Karan's boss. The gang is either killed or apprehended. While the ACP herself gets shot, Karan succeeds in escaping. His freedom is short-lived: suddenly, Sarika emerges from behind him, holds him at gunpoint and makes him drive to a secluded spot. After knocking him out, she chains him in a cavern infested with rats. As Karan regains consciousness, Sarika tells him how she used to be scared of rats and she chose this spot because she wanted him to go through the pain and suffering that she went through while she was in prison. Karan is baffled, but she leaves him in the cavern, with light from a flashlight pointing towards him.

Karan screams, but nobody hears him as he is in a secluded place. Soon the flashlight goes out and Karan loses his strength. A pack of rats attacks and kills him brutally (shown by dimming of lights and screams). With her mission of exacting revenge from Karan accomplished, Sarika surrenders to the police, turning in the bag of money that she stole from Karan's boss to the ACP. The film ends showing Sarika looking at inmates in a prison and leaves to find her life's purpose.

Cast

 * Urmila Matondkar as Sarika Vartak
 * Saif Ali Khan as Karan Singh Rathod
 * Seema Biswas as ACP Malti Vaidya
 * Aditya Srivastava as Advocate Kamlesh Mathur
 * Pratima Kazmi as Prisoner Pramila
 * Kavita Kaushik as Karan's Girlfriend in Delhi
 * Zakir Hussain as Sanjiv Nanda
 * Seema Adhikari as Dolly
 * Rajendra Sethi as Sarika's Neighbour
 * Gopal K Singh as Abhijeet
 * Madan Joshi as Bilal
 * Murali Sharma as Lawyer
 * Ravi Kale as S.I.
 * Abhay Bhargav as Nanda, Karan's boss
 * Rasika Joshi as Prisoner Gomati
 * Sheeba Chaddha as Anita

Production
Saif Ali Khan was unsure about doing the project, especially portraying such a cunning and ruthless character. But the makers convinced him, and he ultimately signed the film. For his first role as a villain, he received a lot of appreciation for his performance.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by Amar Mohile. Two songs play mainly in the narrative. The first song 'Neend Na Aaye' that plays at the beginning of the film has been sung by Pandit Jasraj. The title song 'Ek Hasina Thi' plays in the second half of the movie.

Reception
Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave the film a 3 out of 5, writing, "On the whole, EK HASINA THI, in the spirit of RGV's other movies, has some fresh things to say about love, passion, deceit and destiny". K. Kavitha of Deccan Herald wrote that "His [Ram Gopal Varma's] ‘K Sera Sera Productions’ conjures up yet another superbly crafted movie; yet another promising director — Sriram Raghavan and yet another virtuoso performance by his muse, Urmila".

Urmila Matondkar received high praise for her role as a merciless avenger. Ek Hasina Thi is considered one of the finest performances in her career.