I See You (2006) is a Bollywood ghost story with a difference. It's a romance, with a ghost who is not actually a ghost, and a plot that bears a strong resemblance to the Hollywood film Just Like Heaven. (I am assured that both films are based on Marc levy's novel If Only It Were True, and I am willing to believe it.) But that's not the real difference.
Raj Jaiswal (Arjun Rampal) lives in London and hosts a popular Hindi language talk show called "British Raj." Raj is a carefree bachelor, which in this sort of movie means that he's a walking HR nightmare who hits on every woman within reach, including his new co-host Dilnaaz (Sophie Choudry). She agrees to a date, though it's not clear whether that's because he is charming or she is ambitious. And it doesn't really matter, because when Raj gets home after making the date he discovers Shivani (Vipasha Agarwal) in his apartment, and she just won't leave.
Shivani claims to be a spirit. Not a ghost, exactly - she explains that she's not actually dead, she's in a coma, and she is thrilled to meet someone who can see, hear, and even touch her. Raj assumes that his best friend Akshay (Chunky Pandey), but after some comic business and a quick trip to the hospital to see her body, Raj accepts his spectral roommate.
It takes a little while before they warm up to one another. At first Raj tries to use Shivani's ghostly nature to help him pick up girls and cheat at poker, and she takes the opportunity to mess with him. But soon enough they're friends, leading to more comic business as Raj apparently talks to himself in public and the people around him assume that he's lost his mind. Before long, though, they're close. Raj talks about Shivani all the time, much to Akshhay's chagrin.
And just as the relationship is starting to get romantic, Shivani reveals her secret: the car crash that put her into a coma wasn't an accident. before the crash she stumbled across an organ trafficing ring run out of the hospital, with Doctor Shah (Ashwin Mushran) as the ringleader. Shah is in charge of Shivani's care, and if he can't convince her mother (Kirron Kher) to sign the papers to take her off life support, he'll take care of the problem himself. It's time for Raj to take action - ill-advised and largely ineffectual action. Fortunately minor comic relief character John Smith (Michael Maloney), a police inspector who appeared as a human interest story on The British Raj because he learned Hindi through Bollywood movies in order to woo the movie theater cashier, is on the case.
The plot of I See You is not terribly unusual; in addition to Just Like heaven and Vismayathumbathu (a South Indian movie which came out in 2004 and is, I am assured, based on the same novel), 2021's Teddy takes the same coma-and-organ trafficking plot beats and adds violence and a giant Teddy bear. Still, the movie is reasonably well made and entertaining. Arjun Rampal is probably miscast; he does better with brooding action heroes, but the role is crying out for Rajkummar Rao. Still, he does his best, and the movie is sufficiently fun.
The real difference is the music. Composers Vishal-Shekhar created a bright and poppy soundtrack with a vibrant eighties techno beat - it's Bollywood by way of New Order, and it doesn't sound like any Indian movie I have ever seen.
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