The Film

144 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageHindi

The Film is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Junaid Memon and produced by Amitabh Bhattacharya. It stars Mahima Chaudhry, Khalid Siddiqui, Ananya Khare, Chahat Khanna, Ravi Gossain, Vaibhav Jhalani and Vivek Madan with Sulabha Deshpande, Mukesh Khanna, Nasser Abdullah and Rakesh Bedi in important supporting roles with a voice-over by Irrfan Khan. The film focuses on seven strugglers who, after failing constantly in their attempts to enter the Bollywood industry, choose the path of crime to achieve this end.

Seven strugglers, Sushmita, Nandini, Ankita, Aditya, Vijay, Raman, and Irfan, who are trying to get a foothold in Bollywood, are living as paying guests at Mrs. Braganza's house. Sushmita wants to be a writer; Nandini wants to be a playback singer and idolizes Lata Mangeshkar, Ankita, and Aditya want to be the leading hero and heroine of a super hit film. Vijay wants to be the biggest filmmaker, Raman wants to be a music director, and Irfan wants to be a lyricist. All are striving in their respective fields but yielding no good results. However, they come across the news that Shamim Bhai, a Don from Dubai who targets Bollywood's big names for extortion, tries their hand at quick cash to finance their film by using the name of Shamim and pretending to be his goons, to which all agree reluctantly despite some opposing this idea. They target the film financier Sharad Shah and try extorting ₹100 million (US$1.2 million) by calling him from a stolen phone; however, when Shah reaches with money to the team, they are traced by Inspector Javed Khan, due to the phone that was stolen by Irfan, who had been on tracking by Khan for a long time.

They try to escape from the police with the cash, and they succeed in this plan. Sushmita and his team hide the bag of cash in the outskirts of Mumbai; however, their landlord, Mrs. Braganza, asks them to evacuate the house due to a relative in need of money for their operation as she has to sell her house for money. Police now trace the location of the team, which leads to Mrs. Braganza's house. The team lands into much trouble when one of the real members of Shamim Bhai's gang kidnaps and kills Irfan, who was also identified by Javed, assuming him as Murlidharan's man. Murlidharan is a rival of Shamim, and due to this confusion, the gang members falsely assume Irfan as the henchman of the former. The team is devastated by the news of Irfan's death after they watch the news on TV and run from Mrs. Braganza's house as Irfan was identified by police. Nandini is traumatized by Irfan's death and wanted to surrender to police and confess the crime, but got killed by an unknown assailant. The team has now 5 members on the run, while the police and Shamim gang are hot on their trail.

They take refuge in Raman's music teacher's (Guruji) house till the matter calms down. The police reach Mrs. Braganza's house and interrogate her for letting the team run from her house. She is arrested by Javed Khan and humiliated by him. Unable to bear the treachery of her paying guests and their involvement in crime, Mrs. Braganza commits suicide in the police station. This shatters the team, and Raman, in a drunken haze, accuses Sushmita and other friends of killing Irfan, Nandini, and Mrs. Braganza, and in the heat of the moment, he falls down on shattered pieces of glass and injures himself. Raman dies in the hospital after excessive blood loss, and now the team has no choice but to run for their lives. However, Guruji overhears their conversation about Raman's death and wants to get the team arrested, but gets killed by Vijay and Aditya during the argument. Shamim's gang and police trace the remainder to get them killed and retrieve the cash, and in the process, Ankita and Vijay are killed. After the skirmish, Aditya realized that Sushmita was the mastermind behind these killings, as she wanted to make a film "based on a true story" and mocked Aditya for the same. She kills Aditya, and in the final shot, she drags the body, thus accomplishing her task of making the script of "The Film."

• Mahima Chaudhry as Sushmita Banerjee
• Khalid Siddiqui as Vijay Khatri
• Ananya Khare as Nandini Shetty
• Chahat Khanna as Ankita Kulkarni
• Ravi Gossain as Raman Raawal
• Vaibhav Jhalani as Aditya Sharma
• Vivek Madan as Irfan Lucknowi
• Mukesh Khanna as Police Commissioner of Mumbai
• Sulabha Deshpande as Mrs. Braganza
• Nassar Abdullah as Inspector Javed Khan
• Rakesh Bedi as Pappi Da (a pun on Bappi Lahiri)
• Ranvir Shorey as Filmmaker Kaushik
• Irrfan Khan as voice-over of Shamim Bhai
• Satyen Kappu as Guruji (Raman's music teacher)
• Kenneth Desai as Filmmaker Dutta

IndiaGlitz wrote that film has a message of "shortcuts" and "crime never pays" but with a "predictable script".^[2] Taran Adarsh rated the film 1.5 out 5, writing, "THE FILM is a decent attempt by a first-time director, who has focused more on the story than the stars."^[3] Indrani Roy Mitra from Rediff.com praised the film, describing it as "a laudable effort" from Memon.^[4]

• The Film at IMDb
• The Film at Bollywood Hungama
• The Film at Rotten Tomatoes