From prolific filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan Naqaab.In this film that's set in Dubai, newcomer Urvashi Sharma and Bobby Deol play a young couple engaged to be married. It's another thing he's a multi-millionaire with a home the size of a palace, and she works at Burger King and pays him rent to live under his roof. Just days before her marriage to Bobby, she meets and strikes up a friendship with an aspiring actor played by Akshaye Khanna. Sparks fly between the two, but on Urvashi's insistence their friendship is kept strictly platonic. On D-Day, however, just moments before she exchanges marriage vows with Bobby, Urvashi has a change of heart. Up until this stage, the film made perfect sense to me, but it's from this point onwards that Naqaab turns truly bizarre. It would be unfair to reveal any more of the plot because that would give away the surprise element of the film. But believe me, you'd never have guessed where this film was going anyway, because it's so ridiculous and unimaginable. Now you're probably wondering why I'm complaining if the film is unpredictable, because unpredictable is a good thing, right? Well, there a difference between unpredictable and ridiculous, and the thing about the twists and turns in Naqaab is that they're absolutely ridiculous. For years Abbas-Mustan have ripped off popular films from Hollywood and delivered successful Hindi remakes: Khiladi, Baazigar, Daraar, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Ajnabee, Humraaz and Aitraaz.But with Naqaab they've hit their weakest note because it's a thriller without any thrills if you ask me. There's none of that nail-biting tension, no suspense and an anti-climax to top it all. I could pick a hundred holes in the screenplay but I don't even want to bother, because that would still mean putting in more effort than the writers and the directors have. You know one's willing to suspend disbelief if your script can convince me to make that leap of faith. And Abbas-Mustan know that better than anyone else. We've happily gone along with their stories of mistaken identities, reincarnations, double roles, death-avenging relatives, and murderous spouses.But with Naqaab they come up with something so bizarre that's it's really difficult to digest. In all honesty, I was so stunned by the banality of the plot that I was convinced this couldn't be a rip-off. It had to be some amateur writer's amateurish effort which Abbas-Mustan decided to direct. But to my surprise I discovered that Naqaab is not only a bad script, it's also not an original script. It is copied from a film called Dot the I starring Gael Garcia Bernal. The directors of Naqaab have plundered, lock stock and barrel from that obscure American film. It's not just the plot and the premise of that film that's been borrowed, even dialogues from that film have been directly translated into Hindi and shamelessly used. When a film's not working for you, you can usually find a million things to not like in it. As far as Naqaab is concerned, I have to ask if the costume designer of the film was smoking pot while at work. How else do you explain the horrifying clothes that she's draped most of the actors in—red lace gloves for the leading lady, pink satin shirt with a matching pink waistcoat for Bobby, and double-layered clothes for Akshaye. Hell, why? Also what's with all those ugly sets? From the outside Bobby's home looks like the Queen of England's holiday home, but the interiors are the kind of tasteless sets they used to construct at Hyderabad's Banjara Hills for those B-grade family dramas in the eighties. There's little one can say about the three actors in this film, they perform adequately but fail to make much of an impression and it's hardly their fault given the kind of material they're working with. Abbas-Mustan's Naqaab is far-fetched and illogical and there's hardly anything to like about it.

Karan Oberoi, every girl dreams of a guy like him, handsome, very understanding and rich. Mr. Rohit, mysterious guy who has something to do with Sophia which brings us to the beautiful Ms. Sophia D' Costa who is the heroine/villain of this story and of course Mr. Vicky Malhotra our hero/villain who is an actor who wants to fulfill his dead father's dreams. I liked this movie because it is original, not another boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, enter new boy, girl falls in love with new boy, old boy exits stage left gracefully . . . Instead the plot gradually thickens with every new scene and the entrance of each new revelation makes the viewer actually use their minds instead of wanting to just get the movie over with. We are also left with so many choices of people to crucify for Rohit Shroff's murder, The abusive but unlikely Rakesh, Ronnie and Siddarth who wanted credit for the successful movie and Sophia and Vicky, lovers torn apart by Rohit's love of money, all with a reason for revenge.

Right before watching Naqaab I understood that if I have ever to catch this Abbas-Mustan thriller that would be only for newly introduced Urvashi Sharma. Beside this I find no other reasons to watch. Every time I see Urvashi I remember of Diana Rigg, the Bond girl of 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service opposite George Lazenby. She is new but surprisingly she did help to flash the camera as a new battery. Although the movie was made colourfully it hardly puts any positive colour to our heart, due to such an over-twisting plot.This is the third nonsense directorial presentation from director duo Abbas-Mustan after Daraar and Badshah. After watching a single time I got fed up with the movie and hope not to repeat it watching again. So far they have used Bobby Deol with better prospects in their previous thrillers - Soldier, Ajnabee and Humraaz, but here they all put him under the mud. Although his role has a bit tragedy here but it fails to load back in memory after the movie reaches its end. But the romantic humours between Akshaya and Urvashi are really hilarious and worth watching. Quiet something they can form a good pair if mechanized correctly.I had to say once again if there is any reason to watch Naqaab, that is Urvashi Sharma. She performed her first role with full confident, and I noticed nothing weaknesses in her acting as well as screen-presence. I beg to Abbas-Mustan to cast her in future again in their next upcoming projects with good story, casting and production.

Alright, the movie was pathetic and I would suggest a "Skip It" option and wait for their CD (yes, not even worth a DVD) version or better yet wait for the TV version.Of course, it is the Bollywood version of another not-so-good Hollywood flick – dot the i; no surprise there! "dot the i" took place in London whereas Naqaab took place in Dubai. Your memories may also give you flashbacks of The Truman Show and The Graduate.The story involves a Love Triangle amongst multi-millionaire Karan Khanna aka Rohit Shroff (Bobby Deol), Vicky Malhotra (Akshaye Khanna) and Sophia (Urvashi Sharma). Sophia is a jolly girl who have changed more jobs than she changed her clothes – worked for a construction firm, beauty parlor and finally we saw her as a Burger King girl during the course of the Movie Storyline. She is a casual but self-respecting girl, pays her rent to Karan while she continues a live-in relationship with him in his big Mansion.Anyway, it is funny that such big Mansion of Karan is home to just three person – Sophia, Mrs. Gomes and Karan with no security for such a multi-millionaire Home. Anybody can come in anytime from the main gate either at day (The private detective/photographer coming in to meet Karan) or night (remember Sophia coming home date that day from a date with Vicky).Finally, when Sophia got engaged to Karan after 6 months of living together; she met Vicky Malhotra on her Engagement Party at a Posh Hotel in Dubai. Much to the delight of everybody, she was supposed to dance her last pre-marriage dance with a man of her choice. She chose Vicky and they fell in some sorta Love. I never knew love is always that simple in Bollywood. What did she saw in Vicky that she missed in Karan? Those crudely cut Salsa-type dance done in multi-multiple takes? This is one self-claimed Thriller that will not thrill you at all. The first half of movie moved at snail's pace and stayed with building the characters. The encounters of Sophia and Vicky was exceptionally slow and unnecessarily long. The movie tends to move to the comic side at the end or where the Movie makers assuming that the audience will need some comic relief from the thriller that failed to thrilled? And what with the 2 camcorder flinging self-styled producers – Vikas Kalantri and Vishal Malhotra? Why do Bollywood always take mediocre and sub-standard actors for the non-lead roles in movies. They could have been replaced by some better actors and could have done a little justice to the movie. They are supposed to be supporting characters to the actual plot of the movie.I won't really discuss the funny plot and be a spoiler for you who wish to see the movie. But gain, that's a stupid movie according to me. Btw, for those looking out for Urvashi Sharma, well then she has the body and there was enough of her flesh in the movie to quench your thirst. However, she is neither beautiful nor pretty and her acting ain't that good at all.