Musafir (2004 film)

Musafir
DVD cover
Directed by	Sanjay Gupta
Produced by	Sanjay Gupta
Written by	Sameer Malhotra Milap Zaveri
Starring	Anil Kapoor Aditya Pancholi Sameera Reddy Mahesh Manjrekar Shakti Kapoor Sanjay Dutt Koena Mitra
Music by	Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography	P.S. Vinod
Edited by	Bunty Nagi
Release dates	9 December 2004 (2004-12-09)
Running time	152 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Musafir (translation: Traveller) is a 2004 Hindi thriller film, directed and produced by Sanjay Gupta starring Anil Kapoor, Aditya Pancholi, Sameera Reddy and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles and introducing Koena Mitra. The film was controversial because of some sensual scenes, including kissing, between Kapoor and Reddy. The film has been described as "a take-off on" Oliver Stone's 1997 thriller, U Turn. At the box office the film opened to almost near housefull collections of 80%-100percent all over India but witnessed a steep fall by the end of its first week of release and was eventually given an average verdict at the box office due to its high production costs settling as the eighth highest grossing Hindi film of the year.^[1][2]

Plot

Lucky (Anil Kapoor) is a small-time criminal, hoping to retire with his girlfriend Lara (Koena Mitra) after one last job. Unfortunately for him, things do not go as planned and he becomes involved with a ruthless killer Billa (Sanjay Dutt). Lucky steals 2.5 million from Billa. But Lara steals it from him instead. He, then, comes to know that his friends have been murdered. Billa tracks Lucky down. But Lucky is able to strike a deal. He is to go to Goa and meet Jacko (Shakti Kapoor) and sell him a bag of unknown contents. He then meets Jacko and sets a rendezvous. On his return to his hotel he comes across a Police inspector (Aditya Pancholi) who seems to have become suspicious of Lucky.

In a small restaurant he sights a dancer Sam(Sameera Reddy). He follows her and gets an opportunity to meet her when her car breaks down. He offers her a lift home. She introduces herself as Sam. When her husband, Lukka (Mahesh Manjrekar) shows up, they retrieve her car from the road, and go home. That night Lucky arrives in a disco to meet Jacko again. Here he again comes across Sam. After getting the money, Lucky prepares to leave the next morning. Sam arrives at Lucky's hotel to meet him. But their meeting is cut short when Lucky notices the same inspector. He tells Sam to hide and hides the bag of money in the vehicle of an unsuspecting motorist. By the time Inspector leaves, the vehicle with the money is gone. Meanwhile, Billa tracks down Lara, gets the money back and kills her.

While Billa hides the fact that he has his money back, Lucky hides that he has lost the money. He again comes across Lukka. It turns out that he wants Lucky to kill Sam and in return Lucky would get 2.5 million. Ironically, Sam meets Lucky and sets up a deal that if Lucky would kill Lukka she will pay him 2.5 million. Both of them want the work done that night. During drink sam bents down and Lukka has temptations on her and asks her to remove her blouse but she refuses and lukka forcefully unzips her and his attempts to assault Sam and Sam accidentally shoots him dead. Lucky, however, gets the money and both try to get out of Goa. But the inspector is following them. Sam identifies the inspector as Lukka's brother Tiger and the 2.5 million actually belong to Tiger. Lucky somehow shakes Tiger off his pursuit, and hides the money. The next morning she is nowhere to be found. Lucky desperately searches her and when he finally finds her he realises that he has fallen in love with her. Suddenly they are attacked by Inspector Tiger with his police force.

Lucky is running out of ammunition when Billa arrives and shoots down all the police officers. Tiger, however, manages to escape by making Sam his hostage. At gunpoint Lucky agrees to take Billa to the place where the money is hidden. When they reach the platform, Lucky finds that Tiger has discovered the money. A fist-to-fist duel ensues between Tiger and Lucky but Billa intervenes and strikes a final deal. Both Lucky and Tiger have to walk on two parallel railway tracks blindfolded. The person towards whom the train comes is gone....If Lucky survives then he will get the girl while Billa will take the money, but if Tiger is saved he gets the money and Billa will take the girl.

The train however changes tracks at the last moment and heads towards Lucky. Sam screams in horror and pleads Billa to let her go. From Sam's scream Tiger comes to know that Lucky is doomed. He takes off his blindfold and waves a farewell at Lucky. But he is promptly shot dead by Billa (because Billa notices the bracelet that was on Tiger's wrist that belonged to his now dead comrade). He then allows Sam to run to Lucky and try to save him. She does pull him off the tracks before the train could reach him. Billa smiles and rides away on his bike. After going a short distance, he stops and drops the bag to ground in a brief act of generosity and then goes away.

Trivia

The TV presenter Konnie Huq appears as an extra in the club scene of the film.^[3]

Cast

• Anil Kapoor as Lucky
• Sameera Reddy as Sam
• Aditya Pancholi as Inspector Tiger
• Mahesh Manjrekar as Lukka
• Shakti Kapoor as Whacko Jacko
• Sanjay Dutt as Billa
• Koena Mitra as Lara
• Manoj Pahwa
• Ashwini Kalsekar as Angela

Soundtrack

Musafir
Compilation album by Vishal-Shekhar and Anand Raj Anand
Released	2004
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	97:12
Label	T-Series
Vishal-Shekhar chronology
Popcorn Khao! Mast Ho Jao (2004) Musafir (2004) Shabd (2005)
Anand Raj Anand chronology
Wajah (2003) Musafir (2004) Kaal (2005)

The music of the film was composed by Vishal-Shekhar. Anand Raj Anand composed one track "Ishq Kabhi Kario Na". Four tracks in the album are remixes of the original ones from Kaante. Dev Kohli, Kumaar, Vishal Dadlani and Milap Jhaveri provided the lyrics. The music was applauded by critics and audience for being experimental and different. The compositions of Vishal-Shekhar heavily used techno and trance beats and the album itself was divided into two CDs—"Club" and "Longue". Songs like "Ishq Kabhi Kario Na", "Saaki" and "Door Se Paas" were highly popular among the youth. Vishal-Shekhar made Kumar Sanu sing a techno song "Phir Na Kehna", a very rare Western-style song for Kumar Sanu.

*Originally featured in Kaante.

References

Sunny Deol was offered Anil Kapoor's role but declined due to date issues . Jackie Shroff was the first choice of Sanjay Dutt's role.

External links

• Musafir at the Internet Movie Database