Bichhoo

Synopsis

Jeeva (Bobby Deol) is from a struggling family. He falls in love with Kiran (Malaika Arora Khan) but due to their differences in social class, Kiran's father does not approve of their relationship. To punish Jeeva, Kiran's father frames his mother (Farida Jalal) and two sisters for prostitution and bribes the police into arresting them, which leads to the three of them committing suicide. Kiran also kills herself, ashamed of what her father has done. Jeeva seeks revenge by killing Kiran's father.

He later becomes one of India's most dangerous assassins. He lives in a small apartment next to the Bali family. The father (Mohan Joshi) works for a corrupt police officer named Devraj Khatri (Ashish Vidyarthi) who works in the drug trade. Kiran Bali (Rani Mukherji) is the youngest daughter of the family and strongly dislikes them. She tries to befriend Jeeava many times, but he is too engrossed in his killing to have any time for her. One day, Kiran is in Jeeva's apartment delivering milk to him. Whilst she is there, Khatri and his men break into the Bali's apartment and kill them all — Kiran is the only one to survive as she was in Jeeva's apartment. Jeeva soon finds himself taking Kiran under his wing and so, he trains her in handling weapons to get revenge against the men who had brutally murdered her family.

Relationship to Léon: The Professional

Bichoo is similar to the 1994 English-language French thriller film Léon: The Professional, written and directed by Luc Besson. Léon: The Professional stars Jean Reno as the titular mob hitman; Gary Oldman as corrupt and unhinged DEA agent Norman Stansfield; a young Natalie Portman, in her feature film debut, as Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl who is reluctantly taken in by Léon after her family is murdered; and Danny Aiello as Tony, the mobster who gives the hitman his assignments. Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the hitman's trade. A notable difference is that Mathilda is 12 years old and Kiran about 10 years older.

Cast

Soundtrack

All songs composed by Anand Raj Anand and lyrics penned by Sameer. The album consists 8 songs including two instrumental track. Harry Anand, one of the first musicians to start the trend of bringing out remix music videos in India sung two songs from the tracks. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 16,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's eleventh highest-selling.

Reception

The reviews for Bichhoo were mostly negative. Much criticism was given to Deol and Mukherjee's performances.

Despite its poor critical reception, the film was a box office success.

Sequel

Director Guddu Dhanoa has announced that he would make Bichhoo 2, a sequel with Bobby Deol in the central role. The production of the movie is in its preliminary phase; selection of the lead actress is to be done among other pivotal tasks. In retrospect of the success of Bichhoo, Dhanoa has said that the new venture is special for him. Though he is tentative about the cut and dried date of release of the movie, the director is certain of the movie hitting the screens in near future.