Humraaz


Humraaz is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by the duo Abbas-Mustan and produced under the Venus Movies banner. Released on 5 July 2002, it stars Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna and Ameesha Patel in lead roles. The film is loosely based on the 1998 film A Perfect Murder. The film was remade into Tamil as Girivalam.

Plot

While leading a dance troupe, Karan and Priya fall in love and eventually get a dancing job on a cruise ship leaving for Malaysia. The ship is owned by a rich businessman, Raj, who is attracted to Priya at first sight. Raj was not aware that Priya and Karan are in love and begins wooing Priya. Raj eventually proposes to Priya and she eagerly agrees to marry him. It is revealed that Priya and Karan have been scheming to have Raj wed her to his get money. Their plot is to have Priya divorce him by saying that the marriage was never consummated due to his impotency and become millionaires from the case.
Meanwhile, another dancer from the troupe gets wind of their plot and starts blackmailing Karan. Karan meets him at the designated place to hand him over the money but instead kills him. Unknown to Karan, just before dying, he calls Raj to reveal the truth. The call goes in the voice mailbox since Raj is not in his office.
Worried with the dilemma of choosing a caring husband over personal ambition, Priya meets with an accident while returning home. Raj showers Priya with all his love and care. Priya is overwhelmed to know Raj has kept a prayer for her fast recovery and fasted for two days. Priya decides to reveal the truth to Raj and tells Karan that she will not go through with the divorce. Karan feels betrayed and decides to get his revenge on Priya and Raj. He feigns a call from his troupe member and acts as if he is been harassed for a bribe. Priya decides to give her jewelry to Karan to save him. However, Karan anonymously calls Raj from a public phone and lies to him that Priya loves Karan and she is giving away the money that she looted from Raj to Karan. Raj follows her and sees that Priya is meeting Karan and handing over her jewelry. Raj misunderstands and plots to punish her.
As per the plan, Raj pays Karan to kill Priya and make it look like a robbery. Raj explains every point of the plan right up to precise time and doors to be used for murder and says that he will call on the landline as he wants to hear Priya scream while she is dying. Priya, unaware of the plan, decides to confess everything to Raj in an audio recording and replace the tape with the music cassette in Raj's car. She knows that Raj has a habit of listening to music while traveling to the office. In the recordings, she mentions that if Raj has forgiven her, he should give her a call. If not, she will leave him forever.
As luck would have it, Raj is traveling with an employee that day and hence, doesn't listen to the tape. Karan enters the house as planned and waits for the call. At the same time, Priya is also waiting for the call from Raj expecting him to forgive her. Raj calls the landline as planned, an excited Priya answers the phone. Karan attacks her at the same time and ensures Raj can hear her screams. Raj listens to the tape as he sits in the car in horror. He rushes to save Priya only to see the police and an ambulance waiting at the house.
It is revealed that Priya is saved and the saviour is none other than Karan; meanwhile, a small-time thug is dead. He blackmails Raj saying he had recorded the meeting with him about the murder and to avoid any complications demands that Raj divorce Priya with large alimony as a part of his ransom plan. Karan reaches Raj's ancestral house and tries to blackmail Raj by pressuring him about the consequence to his extended family members if they find Raj is jailed for planning Priya's murder. Raj goes to meet Karan at a decided spot where he says he is ready to go to jail, but will not give any money to Karan. Both men break out in a fight but stop when Priya arrives. Karan tells her about Raj's plan to kill her, but Priya says she is aware of it and knew Karan was blackmailing Raj. At the end of the movie, Priya kills Karan and reunites with Raj.

Cast

Before production started, Priyanka Chopra was offered the role of Priya Singhania, but she was not able to fulfill it because she was working on other films at that time and she also took on various other commitments, which is when the role subsequently went to Ameesha Patel.

Box office

The movie performed well at the box office by having a world-wide gross of ₹29.7 crore against a budget of ₹15 crore.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Himesh Reshammiya with lyrics provided by Sudhakar Sharma. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 22,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's highest-selling.

Awards and nominations

Below is an incomplete list showing the awards and nominations Humraaz received:
YearPresenterAwardResult
2003IIFABest Actress
2003IIFABest Villain
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Film
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Director
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Actor
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Actress
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Villain
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Comedian
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Music Director
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Lyricist
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Male Playback for Bardaasht
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Male Playback for Sanam Mere Humraaz
2003Filmfare AwardsBest Female Playback for Sanam Mere Humraaz
2003Star Screen AwardsBest Director
2003Star Screen AwardsBest Actress
2003Star Screen AwardsBest Villain
2003Zee Cine AwardsBest Villain