Although most of Ram Gopal Verma's movies are not officially directed by him still they carry the Verma stamp all over.Ek Hasina Thi fortunately falls in the really good movies section. It is different and good.

Sarika(Urmila) is an independent working girl in Bombay. She works in a travel agency and stays alone in an apartment. One day a handsome young man Karan (Saif Khan) bumps into her and tries to be over friendly. After initial mood swings both hit it off and become really close. One day Karan flies to another city and tells Sarika to entertain one of his friends. To Sarika's horror it turns out that Karan's friend was a gangster who is killed in encounter but not before leaving a suitcase at Sarika's place. When the police raids her house they find the suitcase filled with weapons and money and Sarika is arrested.

Now starts a thrilling game as Sarika is thrown into prison and she comes in touch with several hardcore criminals. She realises that Karan is the man behind all this and swores revenge. She gets out of the jail and takes her revenge in style.

A topic like this where the leading heroine is wronged by a aman and she takes her revenge were the subject of films like Insaaf Ka Taraazu, Anjaam and Gumraah. However the difference here is that she is not wronged by an out and out villain but by a man whom she loves and trusts. In early 80's there was a film called Durga where Hema Malini is shown to be madly in love with Raj Babbar and she loses her honour to him who cheats her leading her to revenge. But while Durga was a pot-boiler Ek Hasina Thi is a very slickly made movie where there are no stereotypes. After watching the movie I am also relieved that the movie is NOT a remake of Double Jeopardy. It has some portion inspired by it and thats it.

The film has a good story and a reasonably good screenplay. The editing is good but after the thrilling first half the second half looks a bit drag specially towards the end. The direction by debutant Sriram Raghavan is engrossing. The movie like most recent Ram Gopal Verma's movies is technically brilliant. The cinematography is brilliant and the camera effects at places really makes an impact. The sound quality is also excellent.

Like Bhoot even the titles look straight out of a good Hollywood production. Had there been a little more attention in the second half Ek Hasina Thi would have been a much better film. The best scenes of the film are the ones shot in the jail. Although we have seen 3 Deewarein (read my review) which was based on jail but Ek Hasina Thi provides insight in a female prison like never before. Although female prisons have been shown in a good manner in Gumraah and in a horrible way in the disastrous Anjaam,Ek Hasina Thi really thrills you in the realism of jail life. I really admire the director of creating fear in the audience in a jail without showing a molesting villain or an over the top woman. The look is real and at times even scary. Even in the most filmy scene where Urmila fights the jail bully-ya even I was reminded of Kaalia-the fight looks real and well enacted.

Shahrukh Khan has eaten his words many times. After Baazigar and Darr although Anjaam flopped,he said that no-one can play negative roles like he has done. After that Arbaaz Khan in Daraar,Nana Patekar in Agnisakshi,Akshaye Khanna in Humraaz and recently Ajay Devgan first in Deewangee and then in Khakee(read my review) have proved him wrong. His contemporaries Aamir played an underplayed negative role to perfection in Earth-1947 and Salman Khan created ripples with his obseesive lover act in Tere Naam. Still Shahrukh Khan had never imagined in his life that someone as good looking and charming like Saif Ali Khan can play a negative role and that too in style. I guess that sums up what Saif has done in this movie.His character really catches u when he plays the wicked question and answer game with Urmila.

However after that the focus shifts to Urmila and Saif seems to play yet another play-boy role.But towards the end, in the scene where he discovers the truth about Urmila and questions her Saif looks menacing and gets into the skin of the character. If he surprised me by playing an urbane patriotic soldier to perfection in LOC he surprised me gain by his bad guy act. I canno say that Saif has given the best negative performance in recent times but I can definitely say that the way he has portrayed a mean man,it is really very very different from any negative role in recent time.

Needless to say that he looks dashing in designer wears with a stubble on his face. Urmila delivers yet another ace performance after Bhoot.Although in some scenes towards the end she tries and act the way she did in Kaun and Pyaar Tune Kiya Kya-much to my irritation,But otherwise she shows her acting talent once gain.Her expression and dailogue delivery in the prison scenes shows that Urmila is capable of delivering the goods if she has Verma by her side.Seema Biswas is brilliant as the lady police officer. There are many regukar actors of Verma's movies and all fit in their respective roles. Overall a good movie.