Aitbaar

Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie - Dial M for Murder (1954) was remade in Hollywood after 44 years as A Perfect Murder (1998). However its Indian version had come thirteen years prior to that as Aitbaar (1985). Director Mukul Anand adapted the classic story of Hitchcock with finesse and presented a memorable thriller to the Indian audience.

Aitbaar (trust) is the story of Neha (Dimple Kapadia) who loves a singer - Saagar (Suresh Oberai) but finding him as not prepared to marry her immediately, she gets married to a Tennis player - Jaideep (Raj Babbar) according to the wish of her father. But her married life proves no better than a nightmare for her. Aggrieved due to the ill-treating of her drunkard and wife-beater husband, she is about to commit suicide when suddenly she comes across Saagar again. Immediately thereafter, an unexpected but apparently joyful twist arrives in the tale of in her life when she finds her husband as transforming himself for the better. She is extremely happy for the welcome change in him and the consequential pleasant change in her life but her happiness proves to be short-lived when a letter of Saagar that he had written to her, gets stolen from her purse and then someone blackmails her on the basis of that. She pays the demanded money to the blackmailer but does not get the letter back. One day a stranger known as Vikramjeet (Sharat Saxena) breaks into her house and tries to kill her but loses his own life in her hands. Neha is arrested, tried and awarded death-penalty for the crime because it is proved in the court that she has deliberately killed Vikramjeet. However police inspector - Barua (Danny Denjongpa) smells a conspiracy against Neha in the chain of events that has taken place and starts re-examining the facts silently. And before Neha is executed, he is able to unearth the conspiracy and unmask the conspirator. He only tells (now proved innocent) Neha how a perfect murder had been planned to eliminate her, how it backfired, how the conspirator cashed even the unplanned result of his conspiracy to his advantage and how the destiny ensured poetic justice leading to her exoneration.

Aitbaar is an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Director Mukul Anand has been able to indianize the classic work of Alfred Hitchcock very well and present a highly entertaining and virtually spellbinding movie for the Indian audience. Nowhere the story slackens and nowhere any boredom creeps in. It's a brilliant drama in which there is hardly any suspense for the viewer, nevertheless there is no dearth of curiosity for him. It's the sheer brilliance of the story idea as well as its proficient execution that the viewer cannot leave the movie in between even for a single minute. The viewer should watch the movie keeping his brains with him because everything is logically linked to the other things and to understand (and enjoy) the logically connected sequences, one has to be attentive.

The director has wasted no time in beginning to tell the main story and right from the word 'go' the narrative starts moving ahead on the right track. The story runs swiftly towards its desired end like a bullet and the focus is maintained throughout without any diversion at all. The web of the murder-conspiracy which is the theme of the movie, starts getting woven around not only the prospective victim but also the spectator from the very first scene. And till the words 'THE END' appear on the screen, no superfluous scene comes in the movie. And that's called the ideal script of a thriller.

Tight and speedy screenplay has been ably supported by the power-packed performances of the principal characters and the melodious and meaningful songs are the icing on the cake. Resultantly, the overall impact of the film is just superb.

Producer - Romesh Sharma and director - Mukul Anand have nowhere compromised with the production value or quality of the movie. Cinematography is brilliant, editing is par excellence and all the other significant aspects of the movie have also been taken care of very well.

All the four principal actors - Raj Babbar, Suresh Oberai, Dimple Kapadia and Danny Denjongpa have performed excellently. However if I have to choose the best performer, I will select the coughing but cunning police inspector - Danny Denjongpa for the honour. And needless to mention, Dimple looks very pretty also. Though she was a mother of two children in her real life at that time; her beauty, grace and innocent looks in the movie are able to make several unmarried beauties jealous of her.

Bappi Lahiri has composed laudable music for this movie with the meaningful lyrics being penned by Hasan Kamaal. Two songs out of total four, are unforgettable. Kisi Nazar Ko Tera Intezaar Aaj Bhi Hai, sung by Bhupinder and Asha, is one of the best Bollywood Ghazals of all times. However my liking is even more for the Bhupinder-Asha duet - Aawaaz Di Hai Aashiq Nazar Ne Ya Hai Ye Dil Ko Gumaan.

All in all, Aitbaar is a breath-stopping thriller which should not be missed by the thriller-fans. Such razor-sharp thrillers are rarely made in Bollywood. Even those who have seen Dial M for Murder or A Perfect Murder will also find it worth their time and money.

Aitbaar is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic thriller Dial M For Murder. Sadly and quite expectedly, the original source was not acknowledged by the makers, but the film is well attuned to an Indian context and is successfully gripping. The script is taut and complex and the film is overall very well shot and directed, with good camera work and a suitably chilling score. It is definitely a different mainstream Hindi movie for its time, as it leans more on the script and has much less melodrama and sentimentality than one would expect to see. Obviously, it includes several songs, but they are mostly situationally relevant and most of them are beautiful anyway. The acting is very good by one and all, and doubtlessly the film belongs to the ever gorgeous Dimple Kapadia, who makes for a great heroine. Confused, vulnerable and innocent, her Neha is quite different from the feisty and strong characters she does best, and Kapadia is more than effective playing the part. She is completely natural, and her fear, helplessness and uncertainty are aptly displayed. That she looks stunningly beautiful only helps and goes without saying. Raj Babbar does mostly a good job as the devious and calculating husband, though he is a bit hammy in some scenes. Suresh Oberoi is solid as Sagar, while Danny Denzongpa is excellent as the investigating officer. Overall then, Aitbaar is a highly watchable suspense thriller which is worth watching and revisiting.

As other have pointed out, it is a remake of "Dial M for Murder" directed by the greatest of all, Alfred Hitchcock. "Dial M for Murder" is a fantastic movie and "Aitbaar" pretty much remade the movie scene by scene, dialogue by dialogue.

However ..... the characters in "Aitbaar" are m_uch more talented than the ones in "Dial M for Murder". You have to watch them both to see that. Hitchcock's movie is very well made in terms of story, dialogues and direction in general. However, the cast could have been much better. "Aitbaar" is very well made as the actors have done a great job bringing out the characters in the movie really nicely. This goes to show that our actors are very very talented and they just need good directors to bring out the best in them.

Raj Babbar takes the cake for the best actor, if you ask me. While Danny is a very close competitor, he might have lost out by an infinitesimal margin due to the fact that Danny's role is very short in the movie. No fault of his really but the few scenes Danny got, he rocked it in a way that nobody else could have. But Raj, from beginning to the end, did a fantastic job of portraying the character of Jaideep.

If you have not seen "Aitbaar", do so right away. I promise you that you will not regret it.

As expected bollywood can never make originals good so 1 because they have copied the movie and haven't acknowledged the original.

Mukul Anand's films always had a touch of class. And this remake of Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" is special. The plot is effortlessly Indianized, although it is difficult to imagine why any husband, however vain and philandering he may be, would want to snuff the life out of the beauteous Dimple Kapadia. She's a vision. Almost a match for Hitchcock's ice maiden, the incandescent Grace Kelly.

Cinema has never been such an effective vehicle for whodunnits. Why did a murder take place? That's something films tackle well. Not who did it. Even the original Hitchcock film was much too wordy. Anand has made game attempts to make it more visual but as a whodunnit it still doesn't work. The whole plot hinges on the key hidden underneath the staircase carpet. It's a bit too much, when the revelation eventually comes. Much ado about so little, you sigh! The other event in the film that makes you sigh is a sizzling dance done in skimpy clothes by Leena Das for Raj Babbar. Leena sizzles.