Aetbaar

Movies are influenced not copied and in this case, well influenced and directed. John Abaraham debuted in "Jism" and it is amazing how far he has come in span of few movies. In "Jism" he was wooden, here he has great depth and range almost matching the Veteran Bachchan. Hindi movies have been dominated by actors like SRK, Salman Khan who have neither the looks nor the depth to portray the diversity required for an actor. Last decade the Indian Cinema has been cheated,orphaned and greatly deprived of this diversity-in the younger set-where as we always had feast from the older actors like Bachchan, Patekar, Om Puri, Amrish Puri-just to name a few. Actors like John Abraham are filling this gap and Actors like him have heightened interest in the otherwise dormant Hindi Cinema. The movie showcases incredible dueling between Abraham (Aryan) Bachchan (Doctor Trivedi) and his daughter (Bipasa Basu). Bachchan is indisputable Icon who has a commanding presence in any scene in any angle-a born actor like Pacino-where as Bipasha most of the time looks like she is hiding a secret (seductively I may add), but she does emote well when called for,unlike actors in her class Ash Rai; who looks good but the woman cannot act period-which can be a handicap for a director the caliber of Vikram Bhat.

At least Aetbaar didn't involve a love triangle. I was getting sick of seeing Bollywood films with love triangles. On the downside, there is a love story as the focus, there is a lot of overblown melodrama here, there are songs as travelogues, and a bunch of other Bollywood clichés are present. Aetbaar is also strongly derivative. It's basically an uncredited remake of James Foley's 1996 film Fear, with healthy doses of the Martin Scorsese version of Cape Fear (1991) thrown in for good measure. But if it has to be derivative, those aren't two bad films to be derivative of. The more Bollywood thrillers and horror films the better in my view.

Aetbaar is told primarily from the point of view of Ria Malhotra (Bipasha Basu). She's a college student "waiting for the right guy to come along". She says she'll know him when she meets him. She meets him (although she doesn't think so at the time) when he, Aryan Trivedi (John Abraham), almost runs his motorcycle into her. They run into each other again later, at a disco. Aryan keeps coming on strong, and Ria falls for him. Little does she know at the time that Aryan has an extremely obsessive, violent side and basically runs his own gang. We see the violent side early on when Aryan heads out to a whorehouse for a little extracurricular activity, and his idea of a good time is assaulting his host instead of making love to her. Ironically, Ria's father, Ranveer (Amitabh Bachchan), is a well-respected surgeon who ends up treating Aryan's victim. Ranveer suspects that something is off with Aryan as soon as he meets him, and his pleas, then demands, that Ria cease seeing him begin to grow stronger. Eventually, he uncovers some "dirty secrets" about him. Meanwhile, Aryan's behavior begins growing more threatening. Anyone who has seen a number of thrillers will probably be able to predict a lot of the plot from this point, and of course, anyone who has seen either Fear or Cape Fear will be able to predict it in a fair amount of detail.

But insofar as Vikram Bhatt focuses on creating a suspenseful thriller, Aetbaar usually works. Of course Abraham is no De Niro, but he's psychotic enough in his own way. Some of the later scenes, especially those in the climax, can suffer slightly from pushing the envelope towards ridiculousness--for example, at one point, characters do the classic U.S. action film move of outrunning a fireball, but on the other hand, the less bombastic violent material works extremely well.

The sets and locations in the film are attractive and suit the material well. The Malhotras' getaway home was particularly effective and the landscape was impressive cinematographically. Of course, the same sort of bucolic but atmospheric setting was used in Cape Fear, but that makes it no less successful here.

Problems arise on two fronts. The more serious flaw is that Bhatt directs his cast to horrendously overact. The melodrama couldn't be thicker. There are a few attempts at comic relief, but those are just as painful. Bachchan, in particular, makes you want to cringe when he lays on the syrup, and his English "hip youth" spiel towards the beginning of the film is not only cheesy, but for some reason he's almost shouting with a bizarre, affected phrasing. That's a very minor moment, but such groan-worthy tangents are littered throughout the film. I wish Bollywood directors would more often stress underplaying a role. With that type of acting instead, Aetbaar could have nearly been a gem.

The other flaw arrives with Bhatt bowing to various Bollywood conventions. Ria has to fall for Aryan for the film to work, but to conform to the standard Bollywood ebb and flow, Bhatt has Aryan strangling Ria one moment, and the next moment they'll be singing a travelogue romance song to each other--you'd half expect them to get married in the next scene while Johnny Lever shows up to tell a few jokes. The build up from Aryan as love interest to Aryan as dangerous psycho needs to be gradual, and once he does something like strangle Ria, she needs to approach him with a bit more skepticism, even if she still gullibly loves him and has a bit of provisional trust in him.

There are also some very odd production design elements. For some reason, Ranveer has a piano on his patio, uncovered. Pianos aren't weatherproof normally. Maybe in the film, this one is supposed to be, but it's weird enough that it distracted me. Or, Aryan is supposed to be an artist. He's done some portraits of Ria. The first one he shows her is actually quite scary looking--she seems to be melting, as if it were an "acid portrait"; nevertheless, she's impressed, as if it were a normal painting. Again, these are minor points, but there are many of them over the course of the film, and in the general context, they are kinks in the flow of the thriller.

There are also a few dangling threads; these should have been better developed. For example, Ranveer never does find out who beat up the prostitute, even though there's a great chase scene where he comes very close. It's just dropped after that. But that's also a backhanded compliment. It should have been better developed because the idea was very good. Bhatt, who also wrote the story, had no shortage of good ideas in his details, and he can create a lot of suspense when he wants to, even if the basics were cribbed from other films.

Aetbaar is nowhere near a perfect thriller, or a perfect Bollywood film. But it is well worth a look, and if you're more sympathetic to the typical Bollywood melodrama mode and other clichés, you just might love it.

"Aetbaar" is a thriller revolving around a psychopath who gets obsessed to a doctor's daughter amid the doctor's plight to get his daughter out of his vicious obsession. Burrowing its plot from a Hollywood caper "Fear" (1996), the film though grips at instances is muddled and hackneyed on a whole and fizzles for the cheaper cliches by the end, along the poor performances from John Abraham and Bipasa Basu, added the annoying dubbed voice for John Abraham. If any, the saving grace of the film remains the superb screen presence of Amitabh Bachchan as a protective father, who has lost his son in an accident and his college going daughter is stalked by a psychopath, in which he steals the show.

Rating: 1 star out of 4

This movie had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Not only did the sinister part hold my attention but also the loving devotion which the father had for his daughter. This movie is a must see! This film knocks down the familiar stereotypes which some may have of Indian parents, because we see love and devotion all the way. Also, the actors in this movie did a wonderful job. It's clear that this film was geared towards the father as the main focus, showing how he takes charge and protects his family when the need arises. After watching this movie I couldn't help but run into my father's arms to simply say, "thanks for everything!" Please give this incredible movie a try!

This was John's Abrahams film, he plays a negative role and plays it really well, i remember watching this movie a couple of years back and i was really impressed with John's acting, he was only a couple of films old and was a model before he went into acting, my god he was good in this film, and i have loved John ever since.

Hmm Bipasha , her performance was okay but she could have done better, i swear she bores me every time i see her on screen i just watch to change the channel, she does not show any emotion at all, Big B, well he was excellent then again he gives a 100% performance in all of the films that he does, the music was really good as well and i loved the soundtrack, this is a must see film and if you have not seen it go and check it out.