This year, till now, only two suspense movies have released, and unfortunately both of them were failures at the box office though both of them were fantastic. One of them was Naqaab, made by Abbas-Mustan. And the other one was Raqeeb! Raqeeb was an amazing thriller, with completely unpredictable suspense. It was a movie not to be missed, but unfortunately missed by many.
The story of the movie: Remo Mathews (Rahul Khanna) is the owner of a highly successful software company. He is shy, introvert, dedicated and asthmatic. His legal advisor-cum-friend Siddharth (Sharman Joshi) was exactly opposite of him. He was a complete flirt and always urged Remo to socialize so that he can meet few girls and fall in love with them. However, Remo never pays heed to Siddharth. And one day, Siddharth plays a prank and sets Remo up for a blind date. On this blind date, Remo meets Sophie (Tanushree Datta), a theatre actress. They both become friends and slowly, they both fall in love with each other. Soon, they both get married. Once, when Remo and Sophie went to see a play, Sophie came across the actor of the play, Sunny (Jimmy Shergill). Sunny was a struggling theatre actor who was once in love with Sophie and Sophie too loved him. But Sophie ditched her and married Remo. Now when they both met again, their love is rekindled. They then started meeting secretly and occasionally. Tired of meeting in such a way, they decide to kill Remo. They both a make a fantastic plan of killing Remo. The plan was such that everyone will think that Remo died of natural causes and no one will suspect any foul play! Finally, the D-day arrived. Sunny went to Remo’s house to kill him. But suddenly, everything went topsy-turvy.
What went wrong on the D-day?
How it happened?
Why it happened?
Who was responsible for it?
And was Sunny able to kill Remo?
Raqeeb has a great story and most important, it is completely unpredictable. The viewer is unable to suspect who the real culprit till it is actually revealed in the movie. The reason is all the main characters are playing games! This is one of the best feature of this movie.
The movie keeps you engrossed from the first frame itself. The first scene of the movie-Sharman Joshi telling about angel and devil and their differences is a cool scene and a great way to begin such a film! The comic scenes involving Rahul Khanna and Sharman Joshi succeeds in tickling your funny bone. The entry of Jimmy Shergill was terrific, and the scene where Tanushree discusses Rahul Khanna’s murder plan with Jimmy was very nicely executed. And the last 45 minutes of the movie is the period of ‘expect the unexpected’-as lot of twists and turns occur in the tale, which leaves a viewer astonished and satisfied too!
But unfortunately, Raqeeb is not devoid of flaws. Firstly, the humour of Vivek Shaque fails to raise any laughs, except in a scene. Secondly, the action of Abbas Ali Mughal was very bad. It was suprising that such a nice action director fails big time. Thirdly and the most important, the movie was hardly publicized during the time of its release. I had came across so many moviegoers who were not even aware that a movie called Raqeeb has been made and released, inspite of the fact that it stars famous actors like Tanushree Datta and Sharman Joshi. Raqeeb is a classic example of an amazing movie failing at the BO due to lack of publicity.
All the four main actors have done an incredible job and they deserve a pat on their back!!
Rahul Khanna was fantastic and he completely went into the skin of the character. He is such a fine actor. I hope we can see more of him.
Undoubtedly, this was Tanushree Datta’s best performance so far. She handles her difficult role quite easily and succeeds in giving a perfect performance. Great work!
Sharman Joshi was the best among all four! He makes you laugh in the first half and shocks you in the second half, with the change in his character. And he looked supercool in his new look! This is a performance Sharman should be proud of!
Jimmy Sherill perfectly portrays the role of an obsessed lover. His entry was terrific. Though he didn’t have much to do in the second half, overall he was great. Vivek Shaque fails to make you laugh.
Pritam’s music was very nice. As far as songs are concerned, then the best among them has to be ‘Jaane Kaise’. The music is melodious, K K’s voice is beautiful and the lyrics (by Sameer) is magical! It is a song which touches your heart. In my opinion, it is one of the all-time best romantic songs of Bollywood. If you have still not heard it, do hear it!
Other songs which are great are ‘Tadpaye Ishq Kateel’, and ‘Chana Vey’.
Raju Rao’s background score was perfect for such a suspense thriller. Fuwad Khan’s cinematography was normal. Editing and sound design was perfect. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action sequences, as I said earlier, were very bad.
Raj Kanwar writes a great, top-notch and shocking story. Though it is not completely original and has some flaws and glitches, it is overall superb. And the writer used his sense by showing a happy ending. Any other writer would have shown that evil triumphs over good in the end. Great work, Mr Kanwar.
Anurag Singh, the director of the movie, does a great in his debut movie. Though the direction had some loose ends, it can be overlooked as it is Anurag’s first directorial flick. And Anurag Singh also writes the dialogues of the movie, which were quite funny and sharp. Overall, Anurag Singh has done a great work in his first flick. He would surely do even better work in his next.
Some of the best scenes of the movie:
1. The first scene of the movie
2. Sharman’s entry
3. The scene where Rahul and Tanushree meet for the first time and second time
4. The song ‘Jaane Kaise’
5. Jimmy’s terrific entry
6. The scene where Tanushree discusses her evil plan with Jimmy
7. The D-day
8. The last 45 minutes of the movie
9. The climax
On the whole, Raqeeb is a terrific suspense thriller, which keeps you on the edge of the seat and shocks you completely. Performances are first rate, and so are the story, direction and screenplay. Unfortunately, it failed at the box office due to lack of publicity. But one should definitely watch it now that its VCDs/DVDs are out. Don’t Miss It!
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