Race (2008 film)

A voice-over by Inspector Robert D'Costa "RD" (Anil Kapoor) introduces the four main characters. Ranvir "Ronny" Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is a successful and powerful businessman who runs Stallion Group, a big horse racing company in Durban. He inherited the job from his father. His younger brother Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) mooches off of Ronny and is an alcoholic. Ronny is dating an upcoming model Sonia (Bipasha Basu), while his personal assistant Sophia (Katrina Kaif) appears to be secretly in love with him. Ronny is also involved in an intense competition with a rival horse-owner Kabir Ahuja (Dalip Tahil). The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident which Ronny narrowly survives. When Ronny loses money in a race because his jockey had been bribed by Kabir, Ronny plants a bomb in the jockey's car and kills him, showing Ronny to be a ruthless businessman. Later, Ronny also destroys Kabir when the latter offers him money to buy his business, which is in debt.

In a drunken stupor, Rajiv confesses to Ronny that he likes Sonia and that he would quit drinking if he could spend his life with a woman like her. Ronny immediately stops dating Sonia so that Rajiv can have her. Rajiv and Sonia begin dating and appear happy until, in a twist, Rajiv reveals he knows of Sonia's shady past and has a plan to use Sonia to his advantage. Rajiv reveals that his father had secured identical life-insurance policies for huge sums on each of the sons. He explains that he wants to kill Ronny in what would appear to be an accident and inherit $100 million in insurance payments and wants Sonia to play along. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million. They pretend to get married, and Rajiv ignores Sonia in this fake-marriage while continuing to play an alcoholic. As per his instructions, Sonia seduces Ronny, who confesses he loved her all along. Rajiv reveals the rest of his plan: to threaten to commit suicide in response to Sonia and Ronny's affair by leaping off a tall building, have Ronny appear on the terrace, and get Sonia to push Ronny off. However, it turns out Ronny was aware of the plan all along as Sonia had been keeping him updated, having always been in league with him. They then plan to apparently kill Rajiv, using his own plan against him.

Things go according to plan, but Sonia double-crosses Ronny and pushes him off, saying she loved him, but the money was more important. RD appears at this point to investigate the death, accompanied by his idiotic assistant Mini (Sameera Reddy). Upon his arrival, he immediately suspects foul play in the death due to the amount of money on the line. During the investigation, Sophia reveals that she was married to Ronny and produces a legitimate marriage certificate. Sonia is shocked that their plan has been thwarted as Sophia is now the heir to the insurance money. In another twist, Sophia was in on the plan all along and is Rajiv's secret collaborator. Rajiv plans to bump off Sonia after he and Sophia get the insurance money. However, RD figures out during his investigation that Sophia and Rajiv had faked her marriage with Ronny and that he had been tricked into signing the marriage certificate. RD confronts Rajiv about this and agrees to remain silent about it in exchange for $25 million.

Rajiv hires the same hitman who had attempted to murder Ronny at the beginning to kill Sonia, revealing that he had been behind the first murder attempt, too. Sonia is lured into following Rajiv and Sophia to a parking lot, where the hitman attacks her. Just as the hitman is about to kill her, Ronny reappears and rescues her, killing the hitman in the process. Rajiv donates RD's $25 million share to an orphanage at his request. RD then takes the money back from the orphanage manager, minus a cut; he tells Mini that the donation ensures there is no fear of slander or being caught.

Later, when Rajiv and Sophia plan to celebrate, Ronny appears and confronts them. He explains that he had overheard Rajiv discussing the failed murder attempt with the hitman and had been playing along the whole time so he could get the insurance money from his own fake-death along with the insurance money from killing Rajiv. Discovering that Rajiv's hatred towards him as a step brother was his main reason for doing this, he allows Rajiv one last chance to win by agreeing to a car race, in the same spirit as their childhood cycle races. Ronny shows up to the race in a yellow Toyota Supra sports car and Rajiv in a Nissan Skyline. When Rajiv protests, he switches cars with Ronny. Rajiv anticipated the switch and had destroyed the Nissan's brakes. The race begins with Ronny and Sonia in Rajiv's Nissan and Rajiv and Sophia in Ronny's Toyota. In the beginning of the race, Ronny tells Rajiv that he planted a bomb in his car and it will detonated if Rajiv ever slows below 100 kmph. This causes Rajiv to crash into a petroleum tank, killing him and Sophia. After Ronny narrowly escapes death himself, he reveals that there was no bomb in the car and that Rajiv killed himself.

In the end, Ronny collects the insurance money from Rajiv and Sophia's death, along with the money from his own fake-death. Ronny attempts to flee the city with Sonia, but RD stops them. The two are revealed to be childhood friends, and RD was working with Ronny all along in exchange for more money. Ronny gives RD a briefcase, which Mini opens to reveal a bomb. The bomb does not detonate, and Ronny explains that it was to prevent RD from killing Ronny and taking all the money. They drive off in opposite directions and RD hopes to never meet Ronny again.

• Anil Kapoor as Inspector Robert D'Costa, a.k.a. RD, Ranvir's childhood friend
• Saif Ali Khan as Ranvir "Ronny" Singh, Rajiv's elder brother, a powerful businessman
• Akshaye Khanna as Rajiv Singh, Ranvir's younger brother
• Bipasha Basu as Sonia Singh, a supermodel and Ranvir's love interest, later wife
• Katrina Kaif as Sophia Singh, Ranvir's secretary and Rajiv's love interest
• Sameera Reddy as Mini, RD's assistant
• Dalip Tahil as Kabir Ahuja, Ranvir's rival
• Kiku Sharda as Sam, Ranvir's assistant
• Johnny Lever as Max, marriage bureau chief (cameo appearance)
• Gurpreet Ghuggi as police officer (cameo appearance)

Saif Ali Khan originally wished to play the role of Rajiv Singh. He was offered a choice between playing Ranvir or Rajiv. The producers informed him that if he played Rajiv, then Akshay Kumar would be offered the role of Ranvir. Khan finally opted to play Ranvir. Fardeen Khan was then signed for the role of Rajiv, but he later withdrew from the film, as he was committed to Heyy Babyy (2007). At one point, Abhishek Bachchan was approached for the role of Ranvir, but things did not work out.[3]

The soundtrack of Race was released by Tips Music on 1 March 2008.[4] Composed by Pritam with lyrics by Sameer, Race had 7 original songs, 9 remixes and an instrumental theme. The song "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" sung by Monali Thakur and Neeraj Shridhar was recorded after the release of the soundtrack, replacing the original song "Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo" in the film. Tips then re-distributed the soundtrack, adding "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" after the release of the film. All the remix versions were produced by DJ Suketu feat. Aks.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Bollywood Hungama	[5]
Planet Bollywood	[6]
Planet Bollywood	[7]

Race got favourable reviews with the song "Pehli Nazar Mein" sung by Atif Aslam as the biggest hit of the album along with "Zara Zara Touch Me" sung by Monali Thakur.[8] Aakash Gandhi Noted "Pritam gives us a fairly solid soundtrack, reminiscent of a lot of his 2006 works. However, he doesn't quite live up to the expectations he'd set for himself last year. Although, one thing is for sure – he always manages to come up with at least one really great composition in each of his outings. This time it's Pehli Nazar Mein." while Atta Khan wrote, "the soundtrack of Race turns out to be a typical Pritam offering for a bigger profile movie; a few solid tracks that will make the intended impact on screen (especially for the promos) and could well elevate sales for the soundtrack as well. But in all other respects, it is unspectacular, unoriginal, and uninspiring, and apart from 'Pehli Nazar Mein' and a few nice remixes by DJ Suketu, it provides little scope for repeated listening". According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 1,700,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fifth highest-selling.[9] "Race Sanson Ki" is copied from Just Like That by Tarkaan ,a favourite of Pritam.

The original production team had announced plans to make a sequel called Race 2 : Betrayal Is Survival. Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor returned to reprise their roles while John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel were new additions to the cast. Bipasha Basu was the only other returning member and appeared in a cameo role as Sonia.[17][18][19] The filming for Race 2 started on 5 October 2011.[20] It was released on 25 January 2013, and was another success, grossing over ₹1 billion (US$13 million) domestically.[21]

• Official website
• Race at IMDb
• Race at Box Office Mojo