Aar Ya Paar

Aar Ya Paar review :

Ketan Mehta's underrated thriller which was evidently inspired from a popular James Hadley Chase novel. Aar Ya Paar had Jackie Shroff playing an anti hero who marries a richie rich sanki lady (Kamal Siddhu) for her wealth and then plots to kill her with help from her sexy secretary Deepa Sahi. The plan is executed but goes awry due to his past girlfriend Ritu Shivpuri. What happens next?

Of the cast, Jackie aka Jaggu Dada was perfect as the philandering anti hero. It is one of his best performances yet highly underrated. Deepa Sahi was equally good in her complex role and she looked truly ravishing in a swimsuit. On the other hand, Kamal Siddhu and Ritu were bad casting decisions. Paresh Rawal left an impression in a small but important role of ACP Khan.

Mehta Saahab's direction was competent (though he concentrated more on his wife Deepa than the other two ladies). Music by Viju Shah was also memorable with a song filmed in Venice, Italy.

Despite being a well executed taut thriller, Aar Ya Paar didn't work at the box office. The audience just couldnt accept the main lead as a villain killing his own wife. But today, the film makes for an entertaining watch and can pass off as a precursor to Sriram Raghavan's neo noir thrillers like Johnny Gaddar (2007) and Andhadhun (2018).

I had seen this film at Hindmata cinema Dadar during its theatrical run and loved it. Was pretty disappointed by its box office outcome then. Well as the clichè goes, some films are way ahead of its time. This one surely was!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni