Every once in while, a film sneaks up on you unexpectedly and delivers a punch which is unexpected but so very welcome. Phir Milenge manages this. Not only is it an intelligent and well-made film, it aspires to spread awareness of an almost taboo subject without making it tedious or uninteresting. Whilst not devoid of its flaws, Phir milenge turns out to be a subtle yet powerful indictment on prejudice, never melodramatic, sometimes too understated for its own good.

Tamanna (Shilpa Shetty) is a very successful and hardworking executive of an Ad agency. Her boss treats her like his own kith and kin and it's obvious that Tamanna is going places. She lives on her own with her younger sister, Tanya, who works as a Radio Jockey, they both having been orphaned at a young age when their parents were killed in a car accident.

However, Tamanna's routine is thrown helter-skelter when she receives a call from a friend telling her that Rohit Manchanda (Salman Khan) is going to be coming to India for a school reunion and that she must take off two days to come down for this long overdue meeting. Clearly, Tamanna is still living a college romance which never came to fruition and throwing caution to the winds, goes off the meet her pals despite the urgency with regard to one of the Ad agency's biggest clients. Rohit and Tamanna meet and they appear to rekindle a light which seems to have waned in the 10 years that Rohit has been in the US. Rohit returns to the US and Tamanna home, in bliss.

But this is not to last for long when giving blood, it turns out that she is HIV positive. Stunned by this, Tamanna comes to realize that the only way that this could have happened was through unprotected sex that she had with Rohit. Delirious, she tries to reach him in vain and after informing her boss, her world slo0wly starts to collapse in front of her when she returns to work to find that she has been sacked, ostensibly for sloppy work and almost losing the Ad agency's biggest client. Of course, we all know that it's because everyone is scared and ignorance breeds contempt and prejudice. Stunned, Tamanna goes looking for legal advice and gets moved from lawyer to lawyer until she comes a cross a young and not so successful lawyer Tarun Anand (Abhishek Bachchan), who like all the others, makes an excuse and sends Tamanna packing, only to rush to a doctor to see if he is ok as he breathed the same air as Tamanna and may have even shaken her hand.

However, he comes across her again and his conscience getting the better of him, he decides to represent her and lock horns with one of the best lawyers (Mita Vashisht) hoping to win a case for unfair dismissal that Tamanna has filed against her boss. By doing this, Tamanna hopes to regain her self respect.

Revathy's film is certainly inspired by ‘Philadelphia' but deals with a heterosexual relationship and not a gay relationship as in Philadelphia. By adapting it in this way, Revathy has certainly opened the film out to a huger audience that would be able to relate to it, rather than dismiss it as a “disease” that only affects gays, an excuse that could have been made by the illiterate and uneducated. Revathy deals with the issues simply but manages to convey the prejudice and the lack of understanding of the disease that exists in India which in itself if a frightening thought. She brings these issues to the fore in a simple yet effective narrative which gives the film a poignant core. What is also nice to see if the relationship between Tarun and Tamanna. It's a relationship that is based on mutual respect, on friendship and love which can exist between friends. Revathy depicts this in such a wholesome and normal way that it almost seems unreal. It also lends depth to the characters and the fact that actors today don't need to be inveigled into the love scenario and a film can run its course without having to be only a love story.

Where she is less good is the segment of Salman and Shilpa's early meeting. The viewer, looking at the dreamy Rohit, almost feels that this is a man, who knows that he is afflicted, and yet sleeps with Tamanna and exposes her to the virus. However, he reveals later that he did not know at the time but either Revathy has failed to convince that that is the case or Salman Khan just continues to look glassy eyed and mortally afflicted in every film that he does. I tend to believe that it is the latter.

Shilpa Shetty has the role of her career and whilst I ached to have had a Tabu do this role, it is an unfair comparison to make because Shilpa really does a commendable job at it. Never thought I would say that but despite the perfect make up, the lady was able to bring authenticity to her role as Tamanna.

Abhishek Bachchan comes up trumps again with a mature and understated performance. With time, he has shown huge improvement and Abhishek has come into his own. Whilst not being the focal point of the film, his character holds the strand of the film together. The music of Shankar Ehsaan Loy is effective and suits the mood.

Salman Khan, in a brief role, must be applauded for taking on the role of Rohit as one hears that many rejected the offer of playing an Aids victim for fear of being ostracized. That in itself is worthy of a statement and for that alone, hats off to Salman Khan.

This is a most worthwhile and commendable film, a film that should be seen by everyone in India. It does not seek to shove data down your throat, not does it seek to be a documentary on the disease. What is does is to open your eyes to the existence of it, to the fact that ignorance will not help you deal with it and that those who have contracted the disease, need not be treated as pariahs and shunned by society. It is a metaphor for all types of prejudice and Revathy makes a sensitive and last impression on the viewer with this small yet effective film. See it.