Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena is a stylish con caper with one of the years finest ensemble casts comprising the enchanting team of Fardeen Khan, Koena Mitra, Aditya Panscholi, Kay Kay Menon and Feroz Khan. This roller coaster ride through the mean streets and clubs of Mumbai comes from the house of Pritish Nandy Communications and is written and directed by debutante Suparn Verma.

Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena is the story of Arjun (Fardeen Khan) —a grifter with a heart, the lovely Natasha (Koena Mitra)—a psychiatrist who gets enamoured by and sucked into the glamorous world of conning, the menacing Sikander (Aditya Panscholi—who dispassionately rules over the dark underbelly of Mumbai’s nightlife, Kaif (Kay Kay Menon)—Sikander’s hired gun who shadows Arjun for the period of the film with a gun in one hand and the Economic Times in the other and the suave Jaichand Rai (Feroz Khan)—who plays the ultimate mark.

Put all our characters together and what unfolds is the greatest con ever pulled. Where the ultimate question is—Who conned who?

Lies and Deception.

Society may call it wrong. I call it story telling. We are the fortunate few who get paid to create lies, elaborate ones at that. Involve millions of audiences into them, manipulate their emotions, heighten their fears, make them laugh, make them cry. We are all con artists and there are none so skilled as us because in the end we leave the audiences with ‘HOPE’.

I have always been a liar, or a storyteller, depends on which side of the story you are on. Film Noir has always fascinated me because of the morality of the characters and the stories. The blurring lines between right and wrong, changing loyalties, morally ambiguous protagonists, they create a fascinating world.

In our lives so bereft of truth, we desperately want to believe in something, in someone, this is where the conman comes in, he gives you his confidence without asking for any, and we make the fatal mistake of believing.

Orson Welles so brilliantly demonstrated it when he had all of America believing that the aliens had landed after his radio play based in HG Wells ‘War of the Worlds’. The trick was simple, use the power of suggestion.

Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena is my homage to every filmmaker who is a conman, magician, and hustler rolled into one, who has been doing this for years.

I would be easy to say that I grew up in a rough neighbourhood and all the characters in this film are from life, but the only truth in it is that these characters are from life, but an imaginary one. In this story I have drawn upon characters, plot ideas, devises, instances and examples from the thousands of films I have grown up watching and some from my imagination too.

The film plays out like a magic trick, while one hand diverts your attention, the other makes the rabbit disappear. But the difference is that in the end you get to see the whole trick card by card. The idea was to have a world of shadows, where the audience is made an actual participant through the use of various angles and technical devises. The background music is again a fond look back to the 70’s with the strains of piano, jazz percussion and strings with a hint of bossa nova mixed in the air.

A lot will be written about the tagline of the film ‘F*** THE LAW’. For me it has nothing to do with the cops, but to do with the whole system that is rotten to the core. In a world where the lawmakers are corrupt and the rule of the land is anarchy, where the diktat is each man for himself, the line ‘F*** THE LAW’ is a slogan of our times. It’s a chant to do our own thing and get away with it.

Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena is a film set in a world where crime may look like fun in the beginning but if you go too far, you will get burned. It is the story of one man who takes on all the odds and gambles against his life.

Suparn Verma

If you are tired of falling asleep watching ostentatious family dramas and sloppy love stories, this is the movie that should spur you to the theatres. It’s thrilling, clever, uniquely styled. It’s young in spirit and music. It’s adventurous in terms of its ideas and treatment. And it features some remarkably talented stars and actors, including Fardeen Khan who breaks his chrysalis finally and the year’s most ravishing discovery, Koena Mitra, backed by a truly outstanding ensemble cast. The raison d’etre of the casting of course is the amazing Feroze Khan who makes a brief but unforgettable presence on the screen.

Screenplay writer Suparn Verma makes his debut with Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena. Pritam out-Dhooms himself. And we, in PNC, are delighted to associate ourselves with one of the year’s most interesting films. Watch it!

Pritish Nandy