Ek Hasina Thi

Infobox Film
name = Ek Hasina Thi


image_size =
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director = Sriram Raghavan
producer = Ram Gopal Varma
writer = Sriram Raghavan
Pooja Ladha Surti
starring = Urmila Matondkar
Saif Ali Khan
Seema Biswas
music = Amar Mohile
cinematography = C.K. Muraleedharan
editing = Sanjib Datta
distributor = Bollywood
released = February 24, 2003
runtime = 120 minutes
country = IND
language = Hindi
English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
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website =
amg_id = 301969
imdb_id = 0352314

"Ek Hasina Thi" (Devnagari: एक हसीना थी, English: "There Was Once A Beautiful Woman") is a 2003 Bollywood psycho thriller produced by Ram Gopal Varma, directed by debut filmmaker Sriram Raghavan and starring Urmila Matondkar and Saif Ali Khan in the lead roles.

Plot

A travel agent called Sarika (Urmila Matondkar) meets and falls for a mysterious businessman Karan Rathod (Saif Ali Khan). After Karan involves Sarika in looking after a suitcase full of illegal firearms belonging to his friend, a hitman, she is arrested for having links with the underworld and is remanded to judicial custody.

Karan sends Kamalesh Mathur to her, a defense attorney, seemingly to fight her case, but who in fact tricks her into confessing that she knew the hitman and was acting of her own free will. The judge sentences her to 7 years hard labour without parole. Sarika then realizes that Karan is actually an associate to the underworld and that he had her framed to keep police eyes away from himself. The way she is made to confess to a crime she did not commit, the death of her father because of the incident, and the portrayal of the hard life in prison strengthen her and change her approach for life. She finally escapes from prison with the help of another prison-inmate.

Once outside, she begins to plot revenge on Karan. Not only does Sarika want to kill Karan, she wants him to suffer and wants to humiliate and frighten him. First she kills Mathur and throws his body off the balcony of his multi-storeyed flat. Karan remains oblivious to the fact that the murder could have been done by Sarika, even though he knew that she had escaped from prison. He blames the murder on rival gangs. Sarika then books a hotel room immediately next to Karan's and follows him for days. Karan is staying with a new girl in his hotel room, and she watches him and this girl go shopping, dining, swimming, and enjoying life as a whole.

Bilall, an aide of Sanjeev, is shocked to see Sanjeev murdered, and the entire load of cash missing. Everything points to Karan being Sanjeev's murderer. The underworld begins to hunt down Karan. Sarika, whose long patience has paid off, enjoys this moment. Not content with Karan hurt and frightened, Sarika meets Karan when he was trying to elude hitmen sent to kill him. She pretends to be still in love with him, feigns surprise and happiness. She offers him refuge in her hide-out, so that she can enjoy his misery first hand. However Karan later realizes that Sarika was there with him at the hotel, and it leads him to finally realize that Sarika is the person who framed him. Before the police can take him to the police station, he manages to escape during a shoot out.

Karan then takes Sarika forcefully to Nanda, Sanjeev's elder brother, but Sarika escapes and manages to take Karan hostage in his car. She takes him inside a cave, knocks him unconscious and ties him with chains to the rocks. On regaining consciousness, Karan finds himself captive, and Sarika leaving him after telling him that she had searched for days to find such a place for him to die slowly in. She leaves her torchlight. Once the light from the torch goes out, rats come out and begin to attack him, as Karan used to tease Sarika for her fear of the pests. Karan dies a long and painful death. Sarika voluntarily returns to jail as she has had the pleasure of killing Karan in the manner she desired.

Cast

* Urmila Matondkar: Sarika Vartak
* Saif Ali Khan: Karan Singh Rathod
* Seema Biswas: ACP Malti Vaidya
* Aditya Srivastava: Kamlesh Mathur
* Pratima Kazmi: Pramila (as Pratima Kajmi)
* Zakir Hussain: Sanjeiv Nanda
* Seema Adhikari: Dolly
* Gopal Singh: Abhijeet
* Madan Joshi: —
* Abhay Bhargav: —
* Rasika Oak: —

Awards

Along with other technical nominations, the film won the Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the Star Screen and Zee Cine award ceremonies, respectively. Matondkar received nominations for "Best Actress", including Filmfare Awards, Star Screen Awards and Zee Cine. Khan received nominations for "Best Villain" at the Star Screen and Zee Cine Awards.

External links

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* [http://www.planetbollywood.com/Film/EkHasinaThi/ Planet Bollywood: Ek Hasina Thi (Film Review)]