Film: Raqeeb – Rivals In Love

Producer: Raj Kanwar

Director: Anurag Singh

Music: Pritam

Lyrics: Sameer

Audio: T-Series

Cast: Rahul Khanna, Sharman Joshe, Jimmy Shargill, Tannushree Datta, Vivake Shauq, Rekha Rao, Kishoree Shahne, Visvjeet Pradhan, etc.

Release: First week of May 2007

Synopsis:

Raqeeb is a musical thriller a roller coaster ride that hurtles from one twist to the next at breakneck speed. The story has many themes that are so different and yet so closely linked that they overlap each other. These themes are like shadows where the viewer is never quite sure where one shadow ends and the next begins. Seduction leads to love, love becomes betrayal, betrayal is motivated by passion, passion leads to obsession and to crime, and this crime reveals another betrayal which again is motivated by love.

The protagonist, Remo Mathews, is a computer whiz kid and the owner of a highly successful software company. Remo’s parents had died in a car crash when he was still a child. Siddharth is his employee and probably, only friend.

Sidharth is the extroverted playboy, and is the exact opposite of Remo who is shy, introverted and asthmatic. Sidharth constantly pesters Remo to socialize so that he can meet a few girls and fall in love with one of them. Remo seems to be averse to the whole idea until, one day, Sidharth plays a prank and sets Remo up for a blind date.

Remo meets the girl and after the initial hilarious misunderstanding falls in love with her. The girl is Sofie, a theatre actress who is high on life. Love blossoms and all is going smoothly until Remo and Sofie discover that her  parents died in the same car crash in which Remo’s parents had been killed. Sofie realises that Remo’s parents were responsible for the death of her parents.

Remo doesn’t know how to deal with this tragic discovery. Sidharth persuades him to propose to Sofie. Remo proposes and after the initial hesitation, Sofie accepts. Remo and Sofie get married. Thereafter, the story takes an unexpected twist with the introduction of Sunny. Sunny is a struggling actor who was in love with Sofie. But Sofie had always wanted a luxurious life which Sunny was unable to provide.

Hence, Sofie married Remo. When they meet again, the old love is rekindled. Thus begins a torrid affair between them. Finally, tired of having to meet secretly and only occasionally, they plan to kill Remo. The plan is to hide Remo’s Asthma medicine and then aggravate his asthma so as to trigger an asthma attack.

Once the asthma attack occurs, Sunny has to pretend to shoot Remo with fake bullets so as to aggravate his condition further eventually leading to death. The post mortem will reveal that Remo died of natural causes and hence, no one will be suspected of any foul play. The D-day arrives and Sunny comes to Remo’s house to execute the plan. But there is another twist in the tale. Sofie double crosses Sunny as well and he is arrested and accused of Remo’s murder.

Why does Sofie double cross Sunny? Is there more to her than what meets the eye? Does she really love anyone? Does Sidharth find out the truth about Sofie? Is Sunny able to clear his name? And…is remo really dead or has he pulled off a Houdini act?

All these questions are answered as the story breathlessly races to its nail biting, chilling climax!