Jism (2003)

jism (A)--------------Rating: 4/5It is a thriller flick that has a new concept..... Cast has done a great job to smoothly moves away without any hesitations for us.... Music and background score was extreme as tuned for ghost thriller.... Romance between the cast was weight for the movie.... An adult flick which decently taken.....Kabir Lal is an alcoholic lawyer whose life is looking as if going down the drain. One morning he sees a stunningly attractive woman on a beach and is instantly enamored by her. By chance he sees her again in a restaurant and offers to buy her a drink. In the process he learns that her name is Sonia and she is married. Unable to resist, he asks her whether she would show him her home. It marks the beginning of a passionate affair, during which Kabir is told that Sonia's husband neglects her. But Sonia cannot leave him because she cannot support herself without her husband's money. Sonia suggests murder and Kabir, blind with lust, agrees. They manage to kill Sonia's husband and make it look like an accident, but then Kabir gets to see Sonia's other side: she no longer is the passionate lover as before, but is a cool-headed mean woman now who won't let go of her wealth at any cost.

The German DVD of Jism advertises it as "Bollywood noir". Is that so? Or is it rather a "Ken & Barbie in lust and death" piece? Some commenters claimed Jism to be a remake of Double Indemnity, which certainly is considered a classic noir. Looking at a popular set of criteria: "We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noir oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel...." (Oneiric is dreamlike). Erotic it certainly is - not by exposing private parts, but just in the ways people talk and act. Strange? Ambivalent? Cruel? All to some degree. I failed to find "oneiric" elements, but the above list is not meant to be all-required.Other frequent associations with film noir include the roles of femme fatale (check - very fatal, for him and herself), the lone, miserable, maverick male (anti-)hero (check); strong darkness/light contrasts (Jism has some, but not over-strong), and an unhappy ending (check - though it could have used a surprising twist there...) So yes, I'd support the classification as a neo-noir movie, especially when set in contrast to other Bollies. In any case, it's an entertaining sexy thriller. I give it a 7 and will watch it again.

"MINOR SPOILER!!!"I don't watch a lot of Bollywood films, but most of what I saw, I've always enjoyed. I noticed that the love scenes in Bollywood movies always consisted of singing and dancing. There was never any kissing or deep fondling of any sort. Bollywood love scenes are extremely tame by Hollywood standards.I watched "Jism", because, heck, the title of the film sounded.....intriguing.Man! This is like, the sexiest Bollywood film I've ever seen! The two main characters, Khabir and Sonia generate a lot of sexual heat. They kiss deeply and hold each other a lot. The actors that played Khabir and Sonia are so pretty to look at. The acting is very good. The beautiful actress that plays Sonia is sweetly sexy. She doesn't try to act sexy, she just is. I can understand why the foolish Khabir would fall for her. The actor that plays Khabir plays Khabir as a charming, foolish and a very likable character in spite of his alcoholism. I've seen "Double Indemnity" and "Body Heat" so I pretty much know what's going to happen in the movie, but I was still impressed by the acting. When Sonia shows her true colors to Khabir, her coldness was such a shock to me, as well as to Khabir. Khabir is pretty much tortured after committing the murder and realizing that the woman he loved was just a user, it was sad to see all this realized on his face. The minor actor that I was most impressed with was the actor that played Siddharth, a policeman and Khabir's best friend. Siddharth vacillates from wanting to beat the hell out of Khabir to wanting to protect Khabir. The performance of the actor that plays Siddharth is outstanding, especially at the ending of the film.This movie is a very, very pretty movie. Everyone in the film looks pretty affluent (with the exception of the character of Frankie) and they all dress stylishly and expensively. The surroundings (Pondicherry) in which these people live are quite beautiful, all lush and green. As a matter of fact, this movie is such eye candy it almost detracts the plot of the movie.The best scenes are the romantic musical scenes of the movie where Sonia and Khabir are out on the beach. He is lying down on the sand with his shirt opened all the way and Sonia is on top of him, practically sitting on his crotch and writhing away to the music.If anyone has ever seen "Double Indemnity" or "Body Heat", this movie adds nothing special to the same old plot. But it still is worth watching if you want to see beautiful people in beautiful surroundings acting in less than beautiful ways.I really like this movie. It's not a perfect film, but it's still worth watching for the very good acting.I give this film a B+.

This so-called Sexy Thriller was neither Sexy nor Thrilling. Since so much hoopla was about the sexiness and eroticism of this movie, I am going to address those issues instead of lamenting the usual lack of good acting, script and direction in majority of commercial Hindi movies (and there was plenty of that in the offering as well). The suffering at DesiMovieMansion began early during the movie and lasted all the way to the end. The sex scenes were pathetic and the actors looked terribly self-conscious while doing intimate scenes. The kissing scenes were not much better than the usual hindi movie moments of discomfort. As for showing "jism" it was almost a no-show. Just some legs and midriff (and a somewhate bare back once). Although given Bipasha Basu's not-so-hot body, this was probably a blessing in disguise. The average hindi pop song video is HOTTER than than the love scenes in this movie, and the average hindi pop song video girl would have been a better choice over Ms. Basu. There was no sexual tension between John and Bipasha during the woo-ing phase. Considering that Gulshan Grover marries Bipasha because she's the trophy-wife, it was laughable (unintentionally) when he was completely exhausted after a romp with her. Bipasha on the other hand, had all her clothes on and even her make-up didn't get sumdged a bit. May be she got-on-top of poor Gulshan, who couldn't handle all that weight!Save your time and money and don't even bother renting this overrated DesiMovieGarbage. I give it a 3/10.