Zeher


Zeher: a Love Story is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language mystery thriller film directed by Mohit Suri in his directorial debut and produced by Mahesh Bhatt. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Shamita Shetty and Udita Goswami, and is an adaptation of the 2003 American film Out of Time. The film was released on 25 March 2005, and was moderately successful at the box office.

Plot

In a small town in Goa the chief of the local police station, Siddharth Mehra is going through a divorce with his wife Sonia whom he still loves, but finds himself involved with a local married woman named Anna Varghese. Unable to cope with the pressures of his wife's success, who is in the special police force, he continues his secret relationship with Anna. But despite his affair with Anna, Siddharth is still in love with Sonia and cannot forget about her.
Things get even more complicated when Siddharth realizes that Anna's husband, Sean, is abusive and Anna is dying from cancer. Being a good soul, Siddharth does not have it in him to abandon this woman, who seems to have given him some affection in recent times.
In the heat of the moment, Siddharth takes an irrational decision to give Anna the money he recovered in a drug raid for her medication in a final effort to save her. Things are not what they seem since Anna dies in a fire that very night. Siddharth now races to uncover a murky trail of drug money, murder, and deceit because all the evidence points to him.
With Sonia heading the case, Siddharth is now in a race against time to find out the real truth behind Anna's murder, recover the drug money, and also win Sonia's love back.
After a bunch of wild goose chases, Siddharth finds out that Anna is alive and was actually controlling Sean and Siddharth in the whole plot to get the insurance money. Siddharth finds this out, and while confronting Anna with the truth, Anna points a gun at him. In the scuffle that follows, Sonia shoots Anna, and she provides the alibi for him, stating that Anna's death was an accident.
Siddharth recovers the lost drug money and reconciles with Sonia.

Cast

  • Emraan Hashmi as Siddharth Mehra: Goa Police officer, Sonia's husband
  • Shamita Shetty as Sonia Mehra: Special Investigating Officer, Siddharth's wife
  • Udita Goswami as Anna Varghese
  • Samir Kochhar as Sean Varghese
  • Ninad Kamat as James: Siddharth's friend
  • Vishwajeet Pradhan as Sooraj Shah: Narcotics Inspector
  • Prasad Oak as Nihaal: Sonia's assistant
  • Puneet Issar as Rahul Varma
  • Paresh Ganatra as Pradip

    Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik, Roop Kumar Rathod, Mithoon, Jal: The Band and Naresh Sharma with lyrics written by Sayeed Quadri and Shakeel Azmi.
According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fourth highest selling.

Reception

Jaspreet Pandohar of BBC.com gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "Zeher is a good example of how the new generation of contemporary Bollywood films are capable of handling sexual themes in a mature and entertaining manner." Patcy N of Rediff.com wrote that "The film is just about watchable, because of the story in the second half. It's the kind of film that's decent timepass, provided you are watching it at home on television".

Awards

Nominations: