Thrillers seem to be the order of the day and sadly, there isn’t a single original one on the market. Jism, given a rather salacious title is in fact a copy of Body Heat, the scorching film noire which catapulted Kathleen Turner and William Hurt to fame and brought Lawrence Kasdan, its director to the fore. Mahesh Bhatt seeks to derive “inspiration” from that film and is inspired to the extent that scenes and dialogues from the Hollywood film find their way into the ridiculously titled Jism.

Kabir Lal (John Abraham) is a down on his luck alcoholic lawyer. No background is given on him as to why he is this way and indeed, you don’t actually find Kabir Lal to be a slimy or avaricious lawyer, nothing like the seedy Ned Racine of Body Heat. In one of his drunken moments, he sees what looks like Bo Derek emerge from the seas and walk by him only to vanish seconds later. How Miss Basu manages to do this is of course not worthy of comment and simply serves to act as a tantalising entry for Ms Basu. Kabir Lal then bumps into her at a restaurant where, like Matty Walker in Body heat, Sonia (Bipasha Basu) tells Kabir that she is a married woman and soon vanishes once again, whetting our Kabir’s appetite even more.

A further meeting at a restaurant reveals that she is a bored and lonely wife of an older man Rohit (gulshan Grover) who visits her on weekends. Leading Kabir on, the two are soon embarking on a rip roaring affair with the help of ice cubes for titillation and odious references to Jism to give the title some meaning. Soon the frustrated wife is voicing her thoughts of how she sometimes gets evil thoughts of “doing away” with her hubby and our dumb lawyer falls for this innocent act.

Hubby arrives back in town sending Kabir lal into a frenzy of sexual deprivation and both lovers plot the murder of the husband. The murder having been achieved, the lovers then have to be careful as not to bring suspicion upon themselves. However, Kabir appears to get sucked in deeper and deeper into being implicated for the murder and it is clear that the frustrated wife is not what she appears to be to him...his insatiable desire for her means that he does not see the conniving and manipulative woman that inhabits her “jism”!.

Amit Saxena has a bash at making a decent enough film. Set in Pondicherry, you get the feel of a small town which is dull enough to make Sonia the predator that she is. But a thriller needs to be slick and this one substitutes tension and suspense with all kinds of salacious scenes with Miss Basu and John Abraham. This may appear to the director as a way of showing what makes Kabir tick but he doesn’t really succeed and his subsequent descent into a hell of his own making is forced and unbelievable. The trouble lies in the script. Mahesh Bhatt provides no explanations for Kabir Lal and the way he is and you end up actually quite liking the guy even though he is a murderer.

Bipasha Basu is possibly perfect for the role and hats off to her to take what on what is a most unsympathetic and unsavoury character. But she messes it up and all she does is smoulder from time to time, clad in her off the shoulder dresses and does not generate much heat except for the frontbenchers when she is under the sheets or on the beach with Mr Abraham. John Abraham, for his first film is not bad..in fact he gets better as the film goes on and has an endearing screen presence, making him less the seedy lawyer and more of a likeable rogue. Never seen a lawyer who dressed as casually as this one.

M.M Kreem’s music is soft and pleasing. The cinematography is very good as is the whole setting and feel of the film. I am afraid the dialogues leave a lot to be desired. On the whole, not a bad effort but somewhat disappointing in the final analysis.