Karan Razdan picks fairly good ideas, but then his scripts turn out hackneyed and his direction shoddy.
Souten — The Other Woman sets up the intriguing scenario of a woman and her step-daughter falling for the same man, though not at the same time. But that’s where the interest level ends.
Because, in spite of setting the film amid Rajasthan royalty (come on, as a character says, this is 2006, do we still have His and Her Highnesses) it has none of the grandeur or the repressive hot house atmosphere of, say, a film like Dangerous Liaisons, from which Razdan seems to have taken his inspiration. There is no touch of royal grace either, as the women go about dressed raunchily even in a traditional setting. Razdan can’t resist that unnecessary bit of skin show.
Ranbir Singh’s (Gulshan Grover) bored second wife Mitali (Mahima Chaudhary) has a brief fling with Raj (Vikram Singh, yet another Shah Rukh Khan wannabe). Raj’s sister-in-law Smita (Padmini Kolhapure) guilt trips so much that he breaks up the affair. He then falls in love with Mitali’s step-daughter Sapna (Kiran Rathod). In a fit of jealousy, Mitali confesses the affair to Sapna, who dumps Raj.
After this the film follows pretty much the predictable trajectory, ending with Mitali’s death, the ’’bad’’ woman has to be punished, while the equally guilty guy gets away.
The film needed not just a better writer-director, but much better actors too. Mahima Chaudhary with her witchy cackle is neither evil nor sympathetic. In fact, Padmini Kolhapure’s seemingly virtuous bhabhi comes across as a meddlesome busybody who interferes in matters which are none of her concern and triggers off the tragic end.
That must be unintentional, because Razdan is definitely not trying to make a point about malevolent moralists, he’s trying to be one himself, a role which does not suit the director of Hawas and Girlfriend one bit.