| Woodstock Villa | |
| Director: | Hansal Mehta |
| Producer: | Sanjay Gupta Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor |
| Starring: | Sikandar Kher Neha Oberoi Arbaaz Khan Gulshan Grover Sachin Khedekar |
| Music: | Anu Malik Bappi Lahiri |
| Cinematography: | Vikas Nowlakha Mahesh Aney |
| Editing: | Bunty Nagi |
| Distributor: | White Feather Films |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes[1] |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Budget: | [2] |
| Gross: | [3] |
Woodstock Villa is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir mystery thriller film directed by Hansal Mehta and jointly produced by Sanjay Gupta and Ekta Kapoor. Loosely based on the 2000 Japanese film Chaos,[4] it features Sikandar Kher and Neha Oberoi in their debut roles[5] alongside Arbaaz Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Gulshan Grover and Sachin Khedekar. Sanjay Dutt makes a guest appearance in a song sequence.[6] The soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik. It was filmed in Mumbai and Mauritius. The film follows an unemployed man who helps a woman plot her own abduction in order to test her husband's love and dedication towards her.[7]
The film, released in India on 30 May 2008, underperformed at the box office.[8] Kher's performance found praise, while the song placement was criticized.[9]
Zara Kampani (Neha Oberoi) meets Sameer (Sikandar Kher) in a pub and lands in his flat asking him to kidnap her so that she can test her husband, Jatin's (Arbaaz Khan) love. Sameer can't refuse because he is in desperate need of money. He hasn't paid his rent for months and has to return a huge sum of money to a relative (Gulshan Grover).
Zara takes Sameer to Woodstock Villa, the location of the kidnapping. Sameer orders Jatin to hand over 5 million to him. After returning, Sameer discovers Zara is dead. An anonymous caller then threatens that he has only 30 minutes to bury the body and clear up all the evidence. He disposes of her body in a forest and returns.
To be on the safe side, he goes to Bangalore. Sameer sees Zara's video on television and heads back to find the truth. He finds Zara and convinces her to tell him the truth. Zara reveals that she and Jatin truly loved each other. Once in a fight, Jatin's real wife, Zara, accidentally died and as her and Zara's faces were quite similar, she played the role of Zara. The kidnapping plan was hatched by Jatin and his girlfriend to get out of this murder and trap somebody else. Sameer calls Jatin to Woodstock Villa with the money and he pays his rent and loan.
He goes to the airport while Jatin gets caught by the police. Jatin tells the police that he was not the only one to commit the crime. Sameer gives a bag to Zara but there is no money inside that bag; he had taken the real bag of money. The ball was in Zara's court. If she boarded the plane, Sameer would have trusted her. She decided to cheat Sameer and got cheated herself. Sameer's flight takes off while Jatin's partner gets arrested.
Sikander Kher had several expectations from the media on his debut film.[11] Although his family name would provide recognition, he chose to have his only his first name listed on the credits.[11] Sanjay Gupta, the producer of Woodstock Villa, is the uncle of the other newcomer, Neha Oberoi, who found it exciting and challenging to play the role of a kidnapped wife.[12] Gupta offered Mehta the opportunity to direct the film at the point where the latter was out of work.[13]
The film had its world premiere in Mumbai on 30 May 2008.[14]
Times of India gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it a stylish thriller and praising the Kher's screen presence, cinematography and songs.[15] On the other hand, Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 2 stars out of 5, feeling the film would have left a stronger impact without having any songs, which he stated were like obstances and "unwanted guests". However, he praised Kher along with the subject treatment, screenplay, dialogues, cinematography and background score.[16] Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film 1 star out of 5, terming it a purported noir thriller and a "killer waste" of one's time and physical tolerance.[17]
Reviewing the soundtrack, Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave it 3 stars out of 5, terming it a "welcome relief" since it stood up for itself in spite of a fresh star cast. He noted that while it did not bring with it what one may term as conventional Bollywood score, Woodstock Villa soundtrack came with the kind of variety which kept the listener engaged.[18]