The Film: Jism
Director: Amit Saxena
Producer: Pooja Bhatt and Sujit Kumar Singh
Music: M.M. Kreem
Lyrics: Sayeed Quadri and Neelesh Misra
Starring: Bipasha Basu, John Abraham and Gulshan Grover
RATING: 3.5/10

Fish Eye Network's Jism (A) is a routine story of sin and crime. A sexy lady of easy virtues cheats on her husband and seduces a young and handsome lawyer. The bachelor lawyer has physical relations with the woman and is so besotted by her that he can't bear to see her with her husband. And that's exactly what the woman had wanted.

Eager to usurp her husband's huge wealth, she takes her lawyer-friend to a point of frustration where he volunteers to murder her husband so that the two of them can then get married and live happily. Of course, being the greedy lady she is, she makes him commit the crime but changes colours soon thereafter. Once she is convinced that she would inherit all the wealth, she ditches the lawyer and kills him, herself dying in the process.

The oft-repeated story has been packaged with plenty of sex and skin to titillate the masses. With semi-nude and suggestive scenes and lots of kissing, the film does succeed in what it sets out to do - excite the viewer with voyeuristic pleasure. The first half has a fair dose of sex but it is almost missing after interval. Actually, once the woman's motive becomes clear beyond doubt, the drama also loses its grip.

Frankly, the writer (Mahesh Bhatt) and director (Amit Saxena) seem to be least concerned about the second half of the plot, having exposed so much skin in the first half. Obviously, therefore, there's not much logic behind the drama. For instance, it seems weird that an intelligent lawyer would firstly murder a man and, having agreed to do that, do such a half-hearted job as to put the police on his own trail. The post-interval part could've been made very interesting by revealing the suspense (about the lady's evil intentions) later and by building on the emotional track of the two true friends of the lawyer.

John Abraham does a fair job in his debut film. He looks good. His acting is reasonably free and his dubbing (by a professional) is effective. Bipasha Basu exudes sex appeal like never before, exposing freely. She has delivered a confident performance and has improved a lot. Her dubbing (by a professional dubbing artiste) is also very good. Gulshan Grover is effective. Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey lend very good support; their track should have been more pronounced. Anahita Uberoi, Sheeba Chadha, Harsh Vasishtha and the rest provide able support.

Amit Saxena's first attempt at direction is good. Of course, he has relied too heavily on sex, as a result of which the film is lopsided, lacking in departments like emotions, comedy and even drama. M.M. Kreem's music is too elitist, restricting the appeal of the film with mass-oriented subject and scenes. In fact, although the 'Awarapan' and 'Jaadu hai' songs are melodious, they are so slow that they put off the viewer. Had the songs been as mass-appealing as the subject, the film may have proved a hit. Song picturisations are boring. Camerawork (Fuwad Khan) is fair. Production values are so-so.

On the whole, Jism is all body (literally!) and hardly any soul (figuratively!). It has titillation value more than entertainment value. Being low-priced and considering its good opening, it will keep most of its distributors safe. Just as commission to distributors of some circuits is not ruled out, the film may not even fetch that for a couple of distributors. Business in multiplexes will be the best. The film will do better in big cities. Smaller the centre, shorter the run and lower the business.