Kasoor is a 2001 Bollywood suspense thriller film produced under Mukesh Bhatt's Vishesh Entertainment Ltd. and directed by Vikram Bhatt. It features Aftab Shivdasani in his second Bollywood appearance and Lisa Ray in her Bollywood debut.^[1] Ray's voice was dubbed by Divya Dutta.^[2] Aftab's voice was dubbed by Vikram Bhatt. The film also stars Apoorva Agnihotri, Irrfan Khan and Ashutosh Rana in supporting roles. It was released on 2 February 2001.^[3]

Plot[link]

The plot is a copy of the 1985 Hollywood thriller Jagged Edge. The film starts with the murder of Priti Saxena (Divya Dutta), wife of Shekhar Saxena (Aftab Shivdasani), a well-known journalist. Inspector Lokhande (Ashutosh Rana) investigates the case and accuses Shekhar of the murder, saying he has enough evidences to arrest him. Upon getting bail from the court, Shekhar's lawyer tells him that he will not be able to fight his case because he is a corporate lawyer. He asks him to contact Simran Bhargav (Lisa Ray), who is a criminal lawyer to fight his case.

Shekhar goes to Simran's house to convince her to take his case. Simran tells Shekhar that she’ll defend him only if she is convinced that he is innocent. Simran is battling inner demons over a case in which she got a man convicted for crime he had not committed. Her guilt increases when she learns that the innocent guy had committed suicide in custody.

While representing Shekhar, whom she considers innocent, Simran falls in love with him — a part of Shekhar’s plan to win her trust. Shekhar lures Simran to his bed and they end up getting intimate. After the court declares Shekhar innocent, Simran spends the night at his house having sex with him again. The next morning, while opening his closet, she finds a typewriter hidden between sheets.

The significance of this typewriter is that there have been typed 'crank' letters sent to her office, leaving little clues that point the finger to the swimming coach (Vishwajeet Pradhan), who had an affair with Shekhar’s wife. The typed letters all have a flyaway 't' on them.

Simran then comes to know that Shekhar is the real murderer. She leaves for the police station to give the typewriter she has found. Shekhar realizes this and is on the prowl to claim his next victim. At the end, Simran kills Shekhar in self-defense.

Cast[link]

• Aftab Shivdasani — Shekhar Saxena
• Lisa Ray — Simran Bhargav
• Divya Dutta — Priti Saxena
• Apoorva Agnihotri — Amit
• Irrfan Khan — public prosecutor
• Ashutosh Rana — Inspector Lokhande

Music[link]

Kasoor's music is composed by Nadeem-Shravan with lyrics by Sameer. The significant tracks in the album include "Kitni Bechain Hoke," "Zindagi Ban Gaye Ho Tum" and "Dil Mera Tod Diya." The background score is given by Daboo Malik while the cinematography is performed by Pravin Bhatt. The playback singers include Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu.

Tracklist[link]

Reception[link]

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama praised the performance of the lead cast saying, "Kasoor scores the most in that one important department - performances. Credit for this must go primarily to the two principal performers - Aftab Shivdasani and Lisa Ray - who come up with proficient performances."^[4] Aparajita Saha of Rediff stated, "this is a film that attempted an intriguing premise but failed when it didn't fully explore that very premise and take it to its logical and rightful conclusion."^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kasoor at the Internet Movie Database

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