Aitraaz

Raj Malhotra (Akshay Kumar) is employed by a telecommunications company, Air Voice. Priya Saxena (Kareena Kapoor), who is looking for a full-time job, goes to Rajs house for an interview, mistaking him for barrister Ram Chautrani (Annu Kapoor), a neighbour and Rajs friend. Raj and Priya fall in love, marry and are expecting their first child.Raj expects to be promoted to CEO when the companys chairman (Amrish Puri) arrives with his new wife, Sonia Roy (Priyanka Chopra) to announce the promotions. Sonia Roy is named the companys new chairman; after a discussion with her husband, she announces the promotions.

The CEO position goes to Rajs friend Rakesh (Vivek Shauq), and Raj is named as one of the board of directors. At a party, Raj, accompanied by Priya, learns about his new boss, Sonia Roy. Priya is surprised that Sonia is the wife of the former chairman (and half his age). Raj and his colleagues talk about Sonia Roy and the age difference between her and her husband, and Raj jokes that his magnetic personality was responsible for his promotion.A flashback explores Rajs previous relationship with Sonia.

Five years earlier, Raj and Sonia (then a model) meet at a beach in Cape Town. They fall in love and move in together; Sonia becomes pregnant with Rajs child, which makes him happy. But Sonia refuses Rajs marriage proposal and says she is going to terminate the pregnancy. She wants wealth, fame, power and status, and a child would be in the way; their relationship ends.On the next day, Rakesh tells Raj about a defect in the companys new mobile handset: a call goes to two people simultaneously—the intended recipient and another person on the phones contact list.

Raj needs Sonias permission to halt production, and she invites him to her house to discuss the matter.Sonia aggressively tries to pursue Raj, who resists. Although he repeatedly rejects her advances, Sonia continues trying to seduce him. For a moment it seems that Raj has given in to Sonias advances but after looking at his locket which has Priyas portrait in it, Raj realises what he is doing and tries to leave. As Raj leaves, she threatens to punish him for spurning her.

The next day, he learns that Sonia has told her husband that Raj harassed her sexually. Since he has admitted finding Sonia attractive, his claim of innocence is not believed, and the company pressures him into a resignation.Raj asks Ram Chauthrani to take his case; Chauthrani tells him not to resign, and to keep going to work. The case goes to court; Sonia and Roy engage a lawyer, Patel (Paresh Rawal). Although the bulk of the evidence is at first against Raj, his bank manager friend returns from Bangkok and gives him a tape which recorded Rajs encounter at Sonias house.

After the tape is proven genuine, Chauthrani is struck by a car driven by someone hired by Sonia and the tape is substituted.When Priya asks Raj why he called their bank manager from Sonias house, he replies that he had called Rakesh; the call went through to the bank manager as well. Priya (also a lawyer) continues the case after Chauthranis injury. She uses Rakeshs phone in evidence against Sonia, exposing her earlier relationship with Raj. It is revealed that Sonia married Roy for money, power and status; when he could not satisfy her sexually, she tried to resume her relationship with Raj.

Priya wins the case and Roy leaves Sonia. Guilt-stricken and humiliated, Sonia commits suicide by jumping from a building.Aitraaz received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its direction, cinematography, dialogue, music and performances, particularly Chopras. The BBC noted the films bold theme, good music and performances and remarked that Abbas-Mustaan have done a good job in Indianising the whole concept. It also praised other aspects of the film, describing it as a gripping edge of the seat drama that keeps viewers glued to their seats.

India Today film critic Anupama Chopra gave it a positive review, remarking that Aitraaz has no pretensions. Its good timepass. Rediff.com praised the film and its originality in Bollywood, noting the incredible audience response to the film: the public was clapping and whistling throughout the films second half! However, they considered some of the dialogues to be extremely cliched, especially during the court scene. Film critic Subhash K.

Jha, on the other hand, was particularly impressed with the court scene which he considered to be splendid, and rated the film 3 out of 5. He considered Chopras performance to be a triumph, remarking: A star is born! As the predatory social-climbing seductress who can go to any length to satiate her lust for life, Priyanka Chopra rocks the scene like never before. However, Jha believed that Kareena was miscast and seemed a little awkward in a non-glamorous role, but comes into her own in the climactic courtroom sequence where she dons the lawyers coat to bail her husband out. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated the film 3.5 out of 5, describing it as a well-crafted thriller and complimenting the directors opting for a theme that has been untouched on the Indian screen so far and the films dramatic moments.

Like Jha, he believed that the film belonged entirely to Priyanka Chopra, and was impressed with her understanding of the character, and the way she drew the hatred of the audience. He also complimented the performances by Kapoor and Kumar. Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu criticised the films second half, commenting that though first half of the movie is well-paced, the second half sags with the songs and twists forced into the plot to buy time, but stated that it was passable with its slick production, a few funny lines, glam quotient and star appeal.