Aetbaar

"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 was a slick thriller. Amitabh, of course, gave another performance worthy of applause. Bipasha perfectly suited and portrayed her role of a rebellious daughter. John was a convincing psycho. The trap scene and the climax were excellently shot and were edge-of-the-seat. Amitabh and John's confrontation scenes were well shot. Songs were really nice. The movie was slightly reminiscent of the recent flick, Inteha. The only thing that didn't make sense was why Bipasha was falling head-over-heels for John when he's obviously abusive towards her.

With a tag line like "Love can kill", I expected some thrills out of this movie which had some talented names attached to it. Sadly what I got was a damp squib. This particular director has a habit of borrowing heavily from english films for most of his movies. In this case the Marky mark movie "Fear", a tale of a obsessed lover. The three principal characters are amitabh bachan, bipasha basu and John abraham. Amitabh is shown as a over protective father to bipasha who's studying at a local college. One rainy day bipasha encounters a group of bikers, John is one of them. He then follows her to a disco and then to her college and somehow manages to get a date with her. John has got all the bad habits one can think of, he hangs around with his hooligan friends stealing, drinking, going to brothels and beating up whores etc etc. Amitabh has planned something different for the weekend and takes the daughter away for a song routine at a scenic location. When Bips does not turn up he goes all wild and decides to show up at Bips house. Where as expected the lovers are caught by the Dad. Amitabh asks Bips to call him for tea, where Amitabh realises he has seen John somewhere, but can,t remember. The rest of the story is about how Amitabh finds out who John is and decides to save the daughter from his clutches. The story is nothing home to ride about and has been seen in a earlier movie of the same director "Inteha". Technically movie is slick. Music very functional. Amitabh is the only saving grace. Bips is badly miscast as the innocent lass. The talent shown by John in "jism" and "saaya" is missing mainly due to bad characterisation.

After watching the movie, some of the things which gave me heartburn are:

On their first date when Bips does not show up, John ends up at place where Bips is, and they are suppose to be on holiday. How in the world did he know where they were.

Later when he meets Bips he almost chokes her to death for not being there. Hello!! what does the director wants the viewer to think.

He beats up the hooker like a savage beast. No complaint, No police report. Nothing

I dont have any thing against getting inspiration from hollywood movies, but one should get inspired not completely make a mess out of it. The director has done it in the past with movies like "Ghulam" and "Raaz" which were inspired but were well made in their own rights with some excellent performances by Aamir khan and Bipasha basu respectively.

This one is strictly for Amitabh fans only.

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.

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!