A Thrilling Experience Indeed . Review on Ek Hasina Thi

Cast: Urmila Matondkar, Saif Ali Khan, Seema Biswas, Pratima Kazmi, Aditya Srivastav

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Producer: Ram Gopal Verma, K Sera Sera

Background Score: Amar Mohile

Cinematography: CK Muralidharan

Sound: Dwarak Warrier

Storyline:

Ek Hasina Thi starts as any modern love story. Sarika Vartak (Urmila Matondkar) ? an independent young girl who lives alone in the big bad city of Mumbai is your simple girl next door who works in a travel office. One fine day, she meets Karan Singh Rathod (Saif Ali Khan), a young debonair guy who is immediately attracted to Sarika?s beauty. He manages to sweep her off her feet and senses with his wit, charm and deceptiveness. Karan takes advantage of Sarika?s naivety and her confidence in him. She ends up behind the bars for no fault of hers because of a bag belonging to a gangster which was left at her place by Karan?s gangster friend.

The cruelty, the torture, the tough times that Sarika has to face in the prison alters her physically and mentally. She turns into a very strong woman and decides to seek revenge from Karan Singh Rathod when she finally realizes the motive behind his affection towards her. Sarika gets out of the jail with the help of a woman gangster (Pratima Kazmi) who operates her gang from inside.

Sarika steps into the world a changed woman now. A woman with an intention to kill her lover slowly and brutally! And she does very well at it too.

Performances:

This is another fantastic performance by Urmila Matondkar after several films like Kaun, Bhoot and Pinjar. She has acted out the role of Sarika Vartak with an amazing ease. Ram Gopal Verma is known to provide her with absolutely challenging roles and she never seems to disappoint her director. She is terrific.

Saif Ali Khan has been portrayed as a dark character for the first time on the screen in Ek Hasina Thi and he has done one hell of a job. This is not your typical Hindi movie bad guy. He is very real; a charmer, a killer and a lover. He wears his own designer clothes in the movie and has acted out the role of a cold blooded ruthless gangster with élan. Saif Ali Khan is a smart actor who knows exactly what to do to avoid getting stereo-typed.

Other supporting actors in the movie like Seema Biswas, Pratima Kazmi and Aditya Srivastav were good in their respective roles. The movie?s star cast is one of its strong points, which is the case in every Ram Gopal Verma movie.

The background score given by Amar Mohile was perfect keeping the movie?s theme in mind.

It was a very good film for the debutante director Sriram Raghavan. The audience would definitely like to see more of such films produced in Bollywood.