Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena

Finally a movie which is as sleek as its title, Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena is surely a Bollywood step ahead. Story is about a conman Arjun who is the man with plan and who accidentally cons a don for which he pays a big price of losing his pal and partner Rohit.Now the dons after him for the money.He makes a gang of his own and then meets Natasha whom he cons for the money and Natasha in turn traps him in the hands of the don to con Jahangir, the don's rival.Now How they decide/plan to con Jahangir and also the don off their backs is all the movie about. Fardeen could have been better,Koena, Kay-Kay and Feroz Khan stand out in their streamlined characters and the music by Pritam is also Buzzing. This is definitely worth a watch and go for it!!!!

It is not an adaptation; it was copied from two very good movies, House of Games & Confidence

House of Game, which revolves around how a group of Con artists con a Psychiatrist (The water pistol scene inclusive) and the over all premise is from the movie "Confidence" by James Foley. No imagination has been wasted in directing or writing screen play for this movie.

It almost appears like the director and screen play writer, well why stop there include light set up, camera angles, make up, costumes every one has decided to preserve their creativity (if any) for future I guess.

The cast has done a below average job when compared to the original cast. However, Feroz Khan was a breath of fresh air and has done an excellent job.

Suparn Verma is at it again after Qayamat, Janasheen, Zameen and Karam. This time he's done the screenplay as well as the direction and the results aren't too bad.

Arjun, a conman, messes with the wrong guy, Sikandar, on one of his jobs and in return has to face the death of his best friend as well as having to pay back the duped money, with interest (Rs. 400,000 in total). The problem: He's spent all the money. So he gangs up with 2 other friends, Jack and Rohit, along with Kaif (who is Sikandar's watch-dog, played by the brilliant Kay Kay Menon) and they have to pull a heist where they can recover the money in 10 days. Enter Natasha, a behavioral psychiatrist who wants to do a research study on the everyday life of Arjun. She joins forces with him and unfortunately gets deeply involved with the crime. The result: the heist is a success, but not how you would expect it.

Anyways, Sikandar is a little too impressed and blackmails them into another job, a bigger one this time, and it involves stealing from the regional underworld kingpin, Jahangir Khan (Feroz Khan, who else??). So a plan has to be schemed up to steal Rs. 25 Crores from Jahangir Khan. Now it gets a bit complicated, because a few characters are suddenly put into play together, as well as the introduction of Sharad Kapoor who plays a CBI officer on the hunt for Arjun.

From then on, the film becomes a little hard to keep up with because the characters become interspersed within the multiple stories and it all boils down to a not-so-explosive end.

A little about the cast: Fardeen has done a decent job, not having been given too much dramatics. He's had to just look cool and deliver straight-faced dialog. Koena Mitra does nothing much except confuse us with her personality and wear lingerie-like clothes in public. The by now infamous steamy song is a bit too steamy for family viewing. Gulshan Grover: nice and evil, the usual fare. Feroz Khan: ha ha.. u know Feroz Khan... he's still looking lecherously at woman and guessing the brand of perfume they're wearing while he runs his many business ventures. Mukul Dev, Kay Kay Menon and Rohit Roy are good in their roles. Being TV artists they have learnt to be patient and do justice to whatever roles come their way.

The film packs too many songs which sometimes break the flow, and I think almost every song is a remake of a popular Hip-Hop/R&B number from recent times. As far as the story goes, be prepared to see "inspiration" from Hollywood flicks like "Matchstick Men" and Confidence". Still, "Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina" is one of the better attempts at the currently popular crime thriller genre.

I was simply blown by the opening scene itself, which starts in reverse. Each frame was simply poetry and also an indicator that the director Suparn Verma is setting up the audiences for a ride. I'm a fan of film noir something missing in Indian cinema for a long long time. But Suparn Verma's debut film is a landmark in its style and plotting. In fact this film was recommended to me by a group of filmmakers and its already become a cult film. Much ahead of its times in the execution and knowing that was it was made for a ridiculously low budget, hats off. The story has been inspired by a few con films, but this film is about the execution. A must see in my book. This is one of those films that will garner appreciation over time as new and younger viewers keep watching it and the word of mouth keeps growing

Although it could be stripped down "Matchstick Men", Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena adds few twists & turns of its own and director Suparn Varma debuts as a promising new director on bollywood horizon. I was following this 'Matchstick Men' and thought that the movie was going to end, but actually had intermission & then I realized that it was Hindi version! The 'new' plot started after that!!! I question the acting skills of lead actors Fardeen & Koena whereas all the other characters have done real efforts to make the movie more engaging. Kay Kay is simply the best of bunch. Feroz Khan as Jehangir is having some split moments of acting, doesn't exactly fit in the movie but can do as a cameo. It felt like stretched in the end & I almost had given up before I saw the ending which might recover some of the lost sense and saves the film on story front. All in all a nice effort. It definitely rises above the mass of bollywood love stories.