Woodstock Villa

Woodstock Villa
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hansal Mehta
Produced by	Sanjay Gupta; Ekta Kapoor; Shobha Kapoor
Written by	Rajiv Krishna; S. Farhan
Starring	Gulshan Grover; Arbaaz Khan; Sikandar Kher; Sachin Khedekar; Neha Oberoi
Music by	Anu Malik
Cinematography	Vikas Nowlakha; Mahesh Aney
Edited by	Bunty Nagi
Distributed by	White Feather Films
Release date	30 May 2008; ; ; ; ;
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	?380 million (US$5.7 million)
Box office	?200 million (US$3.0 million) (worldwide gross, not nett)

Woodstock Villa is a 2008 Indian musical thriller directed by Hansal Mehta and produced by Sanjay Gupta and Ekta Kapoor. It features newcomers Sikandar Kher, Neha Oberoi and Arbaaz Khan in the primary roles while Shakti Kapoor, Gulshan Grover, Sachin Khedekar, Boman Irani and Anupama Verma essay other significant roles. The soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik. It was filmed in Mumbai and Mauritius. The film, which was released in India on 30 May 2008, had a poor box office opening but earned mostly good reviews. Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan have cameo appearances. The plot is a loose adaptation of the 2003 Japanese thriller Game which also went on to be remade in Tamil in 2014 as Sarabham

Plot

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. Samir 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 bhai (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 dead. An anonymous caller then threatens him that he has only 30 minutes to bury the body and clear up all the evidence. He disposes her body in a forest and returns.

To be on the safer 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 face was 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 is not the only one to commit the crime. Sameer gives the bag of money to Zara but there was no money inside that bag, he took the real bag of money. The ball was in Zara's court. If she would have 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.

Cast

Sikandar Kher as Sameer
Neha Oberoi as Zara Kampani
Arbaaz Khan as Jatin Kampani
Gulshan Grover as Karim Bhai
Shakti Kapoor as Mr. Chawla, Sameer's landlord
Sanjay Dutt as Gaurav
Saif Ali Khan
Boman Irani
Anupama Verma
Gaurav Gera

Production

Sikander Kher had several expectations from the media on his debut film. Although his family name would provide recognition, he chose to have his only his first name listed on the credits. Sanjay Gupta, the producer of Woodstock Villa is the uncle of the other newcomer, Neha Oberoi. She said it was exciting and challenging to play the role of a kidnapped wife.

Release and reception

The Bachchan family, Arbaaz Khan and his wife, Malaika Arora Khan and writer, Javed Akhtar were the prominent people attending the premiere.^[5] Anil Kapoor attended the premiere, too, thereby ending the three-year war between him and Anupam Kher.^[6]

Upon its release, the Hindustan Times termed the film as "out of stock villa" in a demeaning tone. Its review felt that even though Sikander had potential, it was limited by the screenplay and direction.^[7] Times of India, on the other hand, wrote in its review that the film was a stylish thriller with good cinematography. It further spoke highly about Sikander, the debutant actor and added that though the songs impede the pace, they provide "freshness and a refreshing new zing."^[8]