Producer: Inderjeet Films Combined
Director: Raj Kanwar
Cast: Arya Babbar, Amrita Rao, Ashutosh Rana, Danny Denzongapa, Shakti Kapoor
Music: Anu Malik

Can’t even say that director Raj Kanwar has presented us old wine served in a new bottle! Though ‘Ab Ke Baras’ is nothing more or less than a formulaic film with the tried-and-tested reincarnation premise, Raj Kanwar doesn’t even make his efforts to add freshness to the execution.

Anjali (Amrita Rao) is a beautiful lively young NRI girl very happy with her life. On her 18th Birthday she suddenly feels sick with strange hazy dreams. As she gets up in the morning she assumes it to be a dream but the glimpses just doesn’t let her in peace. Spiritual guidance deciphers that the dreams are actually the call of her lover from her previous life and she should begin her search for him. If she doesn’t meet him in this life, she won’t be able to reach him ever. (Thus Ab Ke Baras). She comes to India and here she meets Karan (Arya Babbar) who is a brat and at the same time loveable. He is an ordinary car thief. He is both caring and insensitive towards her. They together provoke the police and some drug dealers. Anjali wants him to help her in her search but he feels that she is a fool to believe in all these things. However together they set out, teasing each other and also fighting against the trouble that they face. Ultimately Karan falls in love with her and proposes her. The vague visuals of Anjali now become clear in front of her eyes. Karan is her present and her soulmate is her past. But she discovers that Karan is her true soulmate.

In a flashback we see that Nandini and Abhay are freedom fighters against the British rule who love with each other. Abhay’s archrival in Tejeshwar Singhal (Ashutosh Rana) who is an Indian soldier loyal to the British. Singhal gets Abhay murdered and Nandini kills herself in grief. Karan now seeks to revenge his murderer and DGP Baksh (Danny Denzongpa) helps him in the mission.

The film begins in a decent manner, but loses focus somewhere in the middle. It surely tests the patience of the viewers with the terrible melodramatic and irritating post interval portions. The only strive that Kanwar does is to make a wholesome masala potboiler. He puts in everything that is commercially viable. Unfortunately nothing leads him to be successful. Neither the (downtrodden) comedy works, nor the (ineffective) romance or the (awful) twists in the film. Songs are ill timed and most of the time the director is trying to fit it somewhere or the other.

Debutante Arya Babbar has potential and with the right choice of films should do well for himself. He is loud at times and should take care of that. Amrita Rao also makes good debut and does her part with conviction. Others are okay and nothing worth mentioning.