Jai (Fardeen Khan) is a wandering fashion photographer, on a mission to Goa when he comes across Ria( Urmilla) doing yet another rangeela on the beach...except that its not on the beach but on the edge of a cliff. On edge is what our lady appears to be as she snaps at Jai and refuses him to allow him to take any pictures of her. Don't really blame her although I am not sure which girl of today would strip off into leotards and exercise on the road and not expect to attract attention. But Jai has already snapped a few of her pics and presents these to his editor Wispy (Ravi Baswani) who is thrilled and intends to use the pics to adorn the cover of his new magazine. Ria turns out to be the daughter of a rich businessman who sees red when she sees her picture on the magazine cover but with a happy father, says nothing although she does not intend to model again.

However, Jai manages to convince her and there starts a friendship of sorts between the two. Ria, from being a moody introverted and spoilt child, blooms into a carefree, happy girl, in the throes of love, smitten by Jai. Jai on his part is flirtatious, affectionate, kind and caring. Ria breaks the news to her father that she would like him to meet "a friend "of hers and rings up Jai asking him to meet her. Ria goes over to Jai's home, heart jumping for joy, only to have the door opened by Geeta (Sonali Kulkarni) who turns out to be Jai's wife. The world goes silent for Ria. The following day, she asks Jai, not unreasonably, why he did not tell her that he was married. She professes her love for him which takes him by surprise and devastates her completely as it is clear that he does not love her in the manner that she hoped.

We now enter the world of the rollercoaster as Ria descends into a state of confusion, mental deterioration and ultimately, desperation. Pyaar Tune kya kiya was supposedly modelled on Fatal attraction but its true to say that it is more a tale of obsessive love than a rehash of Fatal Attraction. In Fatal attraction, we had the main character indulge in a one night stand and as divine retribution, it came back to haunt him until the end. He had erred morally and had to pay a price. In PTKK, Jai does not indulge in any foul play. His crime is that of not having mentioned that he was married (a little unbelievable in the first instance that he would not have told Ria considering they were supposedly so close) and for having flirted harmlessly with all the women that he came across. So there is little feeling of guilt on his part although one can safely say that he did most certainly contribute to the ultimate destruction of Ria's persona.

PTKK is less of a thriller and more a story of the descent into madness of a lonely and troubled soul. Why Ria is that way, no one knows but it appears that from childhood, she has always been a spoilt and somewhat difficult child. We also see indications of reckless behaviour at the start and know that she is in some ways, unhinged. Her only ray of light is Jai, a light which dims only too soon in her life.

Rajat Mukherjee has pieced together a decent if not exceptional story of amour fou and it is a wonder that he manages to evoke sympathy for all the characters. However, he has not infused much depth in the film and sometimes, you think that scenes come and go at breakneck pace without there being enough time to develop either the pain of Ria or possibly the guilt, if any in Jai, or the confusion in Geeta. By concentrating on the main thread of the story and not indulging in sub-plots, he has come up with a reasonably taut film (under 2 hours) peppered with good music and songs. But some scenes are clumsily executed and one would have preferred a slightly longer film with possibly more time given for development of these characters and their situations Casting Urmilla in the central role is a bit of a shame because she has done the role of a demented killer in Kaun and one would have preferred to have seen someone else do this role.

Having said that, she is actually quite good in most of the film except where here and there, she tries much too hard. Having said that, this is her best work in a while. I just wish the director had spent less time photographing her body from all angles. Cheap titillation. Fardeen Khan is extremely good and is showing a very unstarry confidence in his work. He flops about like a big bear, unaffected and unassuming, full of charm and a naturalness that one craves for. Sonali Kulkarni, in a smallish role is effective without making much of a mark. The film is well photographed, well edited and has an excellent background score. The songs deserve mention with Kambakht ishq ruling the roost by far but Jaana, ku ku ku and the title track are also fairly snappy numbers. On the whole, a fairly slick and engrossing if somewhat superficial effort.