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Ek Haseena Thi
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'Ek Haseena Thi'

By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Sarika (Urmila Matondkar) is a quiet and gullible girl living a secluded life in Mumbai. She works in a travel agency and stays alone. One day she comes across Karan (Saif Ali Khan) at the agency. He makes advances towards her but she rebuffs them. But when he nabs the thief who steals her purse, she begins to develop a soft corner for him.

Few more tries by Karan before Sarika lets him in her life and her apartment. The two fall in love and decide to get married. But fate has something else in store for Sarika.

One

day, Karan asks Sarika to entertain one of his friends who comes to Mumbai for the first time. After having tea in her house, Karan’s friend leaves his suitcase behind with her. Later in the day, he gets killed. Sarika gets framed for the murder and is arrested.

Karan gets his lawyer friend to fight the case. But there is something fishy about Karan. He begins to manipulate the proceedings. He even persuades gullible Sarika to confess her guilt in the court. Here, for the first time she begins to suspect Karan.

She admits her guilt in the court and gets a seven-year term. Thereafter begins her ordeal in the prison where she overcomes her fear and nausea for rats and squalor. She also has to face a bully prisoner who later becomes her friend.

Slowly it dawns on Sarika that she has been cunningly framed by Karan. Determined to seek revenge, she manages to run away from jail. When the she bumps into him, she finds him on the run trying to save his skin from a bunch of gangsters. She does not settle the scores with him immediately but waits for the right moment.

Urmila Matondkar has given one of the best performances of her career in Ek Haseena Thi.The way she brings about the transformation in her character from a submissive, gullible girl to a hardened woman seeking revenge for the wrong done to her makes her one of the most talented actresses in Bollywood.

Saif Ali Khan stands up to her in equal stead and delivers an intense performance. He has certainly matured as an actor with every film.

Director Sriram Raghavan has given a very realistic look to the movie and kept the story’s momentum with fast paced editing. And the presence of only one song keeps the tempo up while the sound (by Dwarak Warrier) enhances the tension.

There are few sequences in the movie that stands out distinctively. Like the one in the first half when Saif and Urmila play a game in which one person asks questions to the other while the other has to give only wrong answers. When Urmila asks him what he does for living, he replies with conviction he is a gangster. One wonders whether he is lying or telling the truth.

Even the scene involving Urmila’s encounter with a bully prisoner is quite gripping. The movie keeps on gathering pace in the second half until it draws to a nail-biting crescendo.

Watchable.

)))))))

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