| Asambhav | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster forAsambhav | |
| Directed by | Rajiv Rai |
| Written by | Rajiv Rai |
| Produced by | Gulshan Rai |
| Starring | Arjun Rampal Priyanka Chopra Naseeruddin Shah |
| Cinematography | Sukumar Jatania |
| Edited by | Rajiv Rai |
| Music by | Viju Shah |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision |
Release date |
|
Running time | 149 minutes[1] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹13 crore[2] |
| Box office | ₹5.16 crore[2] |
Asambhav (transl. The Impossible)[1] is a 2004 IndianHindi-languageactionthriller film directed byRajiv Rai and produced byGulshan Rai under theTrimurti Films banner. It was released on 23 July 2004, starringArjun Rampal,Naseeruddin Shah andPriyanka Chopra[3] along withDipannita Sharma,Tom Alter,Milind Gunaji, andSharat Saxena.[4] The film was shot entirely in Switzerland.
The film was released on 23 July 2004 andflopped at the box office, earning₹5.16 crore worldwide against a budget of₹13 crore.[2][5]
Captain Aditya "Adit" Arya is a special agent of the Indian army. The Indian president Veer Pratap Singh is kidnapped by Rafiq Mabroz in exchange for cash rewarded by renowned terrorists Youssan Baksh and General Ansari. Adit is sent undercover to rescue the president and his daughter, Kinjal.
The mission is coded "Asambhav." Adit poses as a journalist forIndiatimes and makes his way to Switzerland with the help of a RAW agent called Atul Bhatnagar. On the flight, Adit meets Alisha. Alisha is a singer and has come to Switzerland to do a show with Sam Hans. Her friend Shilpa accompanies her. However, the people whom Alisha and Shilpa have come to Switzerland with are drug smugglers. Shilpa is murdered when she finds this out, and Alisha pretends she knows nothing but meets Adit for help. Adit and Alisha fall in love.
Adit links events from Shilpa's murder to the president's kidnapping and sees that Sam Hans, General Ansari, Youssan Baksh, and Rafiq Mabroz are involved together. Hans' friend Ranjit Parmar, of the Indian embassy, checks files of Switzerland and learns Rafiq Mabroz is a terrorist. He informs Hans, and Hans decides to fight ISI. However, he signs a deal with ISI by kidnapping the president from Youssan Baksh and returning the president to Baksh in exchange for an offer of 50 million pounds.
Parmar suspects someone at the Indian embassy is a traitor helping terrorists. He finds out that Ms. Brar is a traitor. He informs Ambassador G.L. Sarin and is knocked out by Mabroz. Parmar awakes to discover that Ms. Brar and Sarin are both traitors and associates of Mabroz. Mabroz kills Parmar, and Sarin leaves a suicide note beside Parmar. Capt. Arya and Bhatnagar find Parmar dead by the note, but Arya reveals that the ambassador is the traitor because of his head stamp on the suicide note. Arya tries to finish Sarin, but Brar calls the police to get Arya and the ambassadors arrested. Arya shows the police his army card while Sarin and Brar flee. Arya chases them, and Gazi tries to attack Arya. Arya runs after Gazi and is attacked by ISI agents and Youssan's men in a fort. They try to kill Arya, but Arya fires back and kills all of them, including Gazi.
Adit reaches Youssan's headquarters to free the president. He kills General Ansari and all of Youssan's men. Youssan takes the president and flees. Adit chases him. Sam has captured Alisha and Kinjal but is stopped by Ambassador Sarin, who has Hans' friend Brian as a captive. Hans gives money to free Brian, but Sarin kills Brian. Hans kills Mabroz's men. Ms. Brar and Volga chase Alisha and Kinjal near a helicopter but kill each other in the crossfire. Sarin tries to finish Hans, but Hans kills him to avenge the death of Brian.
Youssan tries to kill the president, but Adit kills Youssan and saves him. Mabroz tries to shoot Adit, but Adit kills him. In the end, Adit meets Sam, who confesses sins he committed but promises to improve; so they become friends after being arch-rivals throughout the Mission Asambhav. Adit goes back to India with his girlfriend Alisha, Kinjal, the president, and Atul Bhatnagar.
In 2002, Rai planned to shift to the action thriller genre afterPyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat. In an interview withFilmfare Online, Rai said, "I listened to several people's opinions. I made the film ('PIAM') not on intuition and belief but on marketing strategies and counsels from trade persons insisting that love stories were the trend of the day."[6] In that same year, Rai started his new project with a comeback to action genre and titled itAsambhav.[7]
After planningAsambhav, Rai signed Arjun Rampal as the hero of the movie as Rampal had worked as the hero of Rai's previous directorial venturePyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat.Aishwarya Rai was signed as the heroine.[8] Rampal and Rai were inDil Ka Rishta that released on 17 January 2003 andAsambhav marked their second pairing. However, Rai backed out in 2003, andPriyanka Chopra was cast in as the female lead.[9]
Naseeruddin Shah was recruited to essay the role of the villain as he had worked with Rai as a hero inTridev and as a villain inMohra. Shah had earned critical acclaim for his villainous performance in Rai'sMohra and had earned a nomination forFilmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role at the40th Filmfare Awards.[10] Noticing on Shah's previous success in a negative role, Rai cast him as the villain in his latest action thriller.[11][12] The total cast was of 55 artists including model turned actressDipannita Sharma,Tom Alter andSharat Saxena among others.[13]
During the music launch, Rajiv Rai was interviewed on casting models in important roles. He said, "I wanted a very western look to the film; I wanted it to look stylish. I have roped in many models because I wanted my film to look fresh and stylish. Models have a lot of exposure, and they are very confident in front of the camera. There are a lot of fresh faces coming into acting. I wanted fresh faces for my film. The modeling industry can act. It's not fair to pinpoint. Arjun (Rampal) himself was a model."[14]
After the casting was finalised, Rajiv Rai flew to Switzerland, and the film was shot inTicino. He began filming in June 2003 with a schedule of 57 days. It was filmed in a multi-camera setup. While most scenes were shot with four cameras, the action sequences consisted of seven camera units. It was the first Indian action film to feature no stunts. The action sequences were digitally shot.Asambhav was the first Indian film to be graded digitally on Luster.[13] Filming was completed in September 2003. It was the first Indian movie to be shot in that location, in the longest filming schedule of any Indian film unit in Switzerland.Asambhav was digitised, and no duplicates were used in its development.[14]
Asambhav was launched in March 2004. The soundtrack was composed byViju Shah and it was launched inMumbai on 26 May 2004.[14][15]
Asambhav was released on 23 July 2004. First 15 minutes of the film aired onStar Gold a day prior to film's release.[16]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Bollywood Hungama |   [17] |
| PlanetBollywood.com |  [18] |
Asambhav received mixed to positive reviews from critics upon release. Ronjita Kulkarni ofRediff wrote, "Asambhav, starringArjun Rampal andPriyanka Chopra, is a good film. It packs in the done-to-death Pak-bashing content, and reduces Pakistanis and Afghans to caricatures."[19]Taran Adarsh ofBollywood Hungama gave a rating of 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "On the whole, ASAMBHAV is a weak film in all respects. At the box-office, its chances of hit movieasambhav [impossible]."[17]Shahid Khan ofPlanetBollywood.com gave a rating of 8 out of 10 stars. He wrote, "Rajiv Rai's direction is uninspired. Therefore, his "Asambhav" ends up looking tired and dragged out."[18]
Subhash K. Jha ofIANS wrote "Asambhav is arguably the only mainstream film ever with no mother-figure on the hectic horizon. But the absence of melodrama cannot in itself be a virtue unless it is compounded by a moist quality in the overall design of storytelling."[20]
It collected₹80,632,076 rupees in the opening weekend from all over the country. The earning in the following week was it₹100,507,694 in the second week and₹220,731,569 in the third week. It grossed a total of₹500,113,339.[21]Rediff.com called it an "average grosser".[22]
The film collected US$19,504 in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the film hit fifteen screens in the first weekend of 23 July and collected£16,894. In the second weekend of 30 July, the screens were reduced to fourteen.Asambhav collected £2,142 and grossed a total of £30,311 in the first two weekends.[21]
| Asambhav | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 22 May 2004 |
| Recorded | 2003 |
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Label | Tips |
| Director | Rajiv Rai |
| Producer | Gulshan Rai |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| PlanetBollywood.com | [23] |
The soundtrack ofAsambhav was recorded in 2003. It was composed byViju Shah. It was released by theTips Music Films label on 22 May 2004. The lyrics were written bySameer, andRemo D'Souza was the choreographer of the music sequences. The soundtrack was released on 22 May 2004.
The soundtrack consisted of eleven tracks, including five songs, five instrumental versions and a special 'Asambhav Theme'. The directorRajiv Rai and the supporting actorNaseeruddin Shah also sang in the movie. They performed the song 'Raatein Badi Hain'.[23]
The soundtrack received mixed to negative reviews.Shahid Khan ofPlanetBollywood.com rated it 7 out of 10 stars. He wrote, "Viju Shah´s "Asambhav" might not exactly win the award for the best soundtrack of the year, but there are some pretty darn good tunes here."[23] Runaq Kotecha of Glamsham wrote "The music of Asambhav once again confirms that Viju Shah is certainly one of the best composers that we have when it comes to delivering expeditious racy tracks with ultra modern electronic beats. However, in the midst of all the upbeat technology and heavy duty musical instruments, the tunes seem to be taking a back seat."[24] Aira of SmasHits wrote "Music of 'Asambhav' is only mediocre. If heard in isolation, the music lovers will probably be interested in the techno bit of the entire album."[25]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Raatein Badi Hain" | Hema Sardesai,Naseeruddin Shah,Rajiv Rai & Nayan Rathod | 6:18 |
| 2. | "Teri Dekh Dekh Ladkaiyan" | Udit Narayan & Kavita Krishnamurthy | 6:08 |
| 3. | "Mashuqa Rubi" | Anuradha Sriram | 7:26 |
| 4. | "Main Sada Hoon" | KK | 7:44 |
| 5. | "Koi Aayega" | Sunidhi Chauhan | 6:15 |
| 6. | "Asambhav Theme" | Instrumental | 7:02 |
| 7. | "Raatein Badi Hain (Instrumental)" | 6:18 | |
| 8. | "Teri Dekh Dekh Ladkaiyan (Instrumental)" | 4:49 | |
| 9. | "Mashuqa Rubi (Instrumental)" | 7:12 | |
| 10. | "Main Sada Hoon (Instrumental)" | 7:46 | |
| 11. | "Koi Aayega (Instrumental)" | 6:12 |