/> Starring Rahul Khanna, Sharman Joshi, Jimmy Shergil, Tanushree Dutta
Directed by Anurag Singh
Rating: *

From Anurag Basu last week in Metro to Anurag Singh this week....what a gigantic leap in terms of vision, intent and impact!

Outwardly both Basu's Metro and Singh's Raqeeb are contemporary in content. They make more than whispering mentions of sex, sexuality, cyber-sleaze and other supposedly scandalous and hitherto-taboo subjects.

In one of the initial sequences, the bewigged and benign Rahul Khanna shouts, "I'm not gay!" to Tanushree Dutta across an eatery and then proceeds to smooch her to prove the contrary.

Er..... Mr Director, tongues do lie, you know!

Raqeeb is so busy trying to shock us with its high-voltage wantonness, it forgets to pause for re-fuelling its creative motors.

The narrative moves at a breakneck speed creating a highly charged sexually-defiant version of Abbas-Mustan's Humraaz about the benevolent husband, the adultress wife and her amoral lover (played by Jimmy Shergil sporting theatrical rhetorics, and flowing hennae-coloured hair that makes him look like a cross between a Parsi czarina and Keanu Reeves on a bleached-blond-bad-hair day).

There are three heroes, one heroine, two item songs, three romantic songs, three attempted murders and a couple of funerals. There's also a wedding, a funeral and an item song by starlet Sherlyn Chopra who lets it all hang out in gravity-defying motions.

And yes, in the very first reel we hear the 'f' word twice (suitably beeped by our ever-obliging censor board) and a fart joke from comedian Vivek Shouq who speaks in a dubbed voice.

That's okay. Even the film's only main female lead –who incidentally thrusts her bosom into the camera more expressively than any wannabe in recent times—is heard mouthing very 'modern' (read : item-girl) dialogues. And to impress naïve-millionare bakra Rahul Khanna,she also claims to enjoy Shakespeare.

Sure,we believe you. As much as we believe in the film's perverse quadrangle featuring three besotted men and a girl whose only bankable assets begin and end below the head and in bed.

Tanushree Dutta does have potential....if only she would stop looking so inconsistent, a cross between Aishwarya Rai on a gotten-up-on-the-wrong-side day, and Ayesha Takia acquired-voluptuous –morals day.

Yes, there's some potential in this girl. The same goes for this fearsomely fast-paced fear-is-the-cream flick which treats the marital bed as a place for mocking shenanigans.

Director Anurag Singh cuts his material with the relish of a chef carving turkey for a thanks-giving dinner.

Alas, there isn't much to be thankful for in Raqeeb. Unless you're looking at the scenic archipelagian locations where the songs are shot in the pristine-blue waters, pure-white sands, both mocking the sheer libertine values that the film's leading lady, a cross between a Slutty Savitri and whorish hourie.

Pritam's soundtrack goes by the 'crass'breed requirements of the narrative.