Ajnabee (Stranger in English) is a Bollywood Hindi-language thriller film released in 2001. It was directed by Abbas Mustan and produced by Vijay Galani.
After a whirlwind romance, Indian couple Raj (Bobby Deol) and Priya (Kareena Kapoor) tie the knot and move to Switzerland where they meet and befriend their neighbors, Vikram (Akshay Kumar) and Sonia (Bipasha Basu), another Indian couple. But Raj and Priya quickly find out their neighbors may not be what they seem.
Tropes
- Accidental Murder: When fighting Raj during the finale, Vicky accidentally kicks the fake Sonia/Neeta out of the cruise ship's window, and she falls to the pier and breaks her neck.
- Accidental Pervert: Priya at first thinks Raj is a creep who's stalking her, but it turns out he's only following her because she accidentally took his umbrella.
- Action Survivor: During the finale, Priya has to struggle as she escapes a murderous Vicky who is attempting to kill her, first with a gun and then a machete. She manages to hold him off long enough for Raj to arrive at the nick of time to rescue her.
- Big Damn Heroes: During the finale, Raj arrives just in time to rescue Priya as she's about to be killed by Vicky.
- All According to Plan: Vicky enjoys making ludicrous and convoluted plans by predicting Raj's behavior, to the point saying "All according to plan" is his Character Catchphrase and the password of his bank account.
- Bed Trick: Vicky proposes to Raj that they take each other's identity for one night so they can sleep with each other's wives without them knowing. Raj is horrified at the suggestion and ends up beating up Vicky for merely suggesting it, and it takes a while for them to reconcile. Another night, when both couples are out drinking, Vicky drugs Raj so he would be more amenable to the idea and they seemingly go through with it. But it's later revealed that Raj just ranted to Sonia about how awful Vicky was before passing out, while Vicky just told lies to Priya to set up Raj to be framed for the real Sonia's death. But for a while, Raj does actually believe he may have slept with Sonia and that Vicky slept with Priya and is disgusted by the idea.
- Big Bad: Vicky, a False Friend to Raj and Priya who is actually planning to frame them in his plan to kill his wife for her life insurance.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Vicky portrays himself as an easygoing and friendly fellow, all while planning to backstab people and ruin their lives.
- Black Widow: Vicky is a rare male example, having married a rich woman just so he can kill her and get her insurance money.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Raj is quiet and reserved compared to Priya's upbeat and bubbly personality. This is Gender-Inverted for Vicky and Sonia, which is why Vicky later proposes they do a wife swap.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Raj dislikes drinking alcohol due to how easily he gets drunk.
- Caught on Tape: Raj manages to clear his name by recording Vicky as the latter is gloating and explaining his entire plan to kill his wife and have Raj framed.
- Clear My Name: The second half of the story has Sonia turn up dead with Raj as the prime suspect in her murder, due to being framed by Vicky. When he thinks he's not getting a fair trial, he escapes police custody so he can find the truth on his own.
- Con Man: Vicky makes money by committing Insurance Fraud, with his biggest and latest scheme involving murdering his rich wife, the "real" Sonia, for her insurance money.
- Daddy's Girl: Priya is very close to her dad and even shares his hobbies, such as his love for polo. She is also very spoiled by him.
- Dads Can't Cook: Subverted. Priya's dad was a good cook, so she never learned herself and becomes an awful cook when she tries.
- Dress Hits Floor: When Sonia removes her Modesty Towel in order to change, we just see her towel pooling around her bare legs.
- Evil Costume Switch: After Vicky is revealed to be evil, he starts wearing dark clothes and Cool Shades.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Less of a montage, more of a dance number. The "Meri Zindagi Mein Ajnabee" song has Priya and Raj singing and dancing about how quickly they've fallen in love.
- False Friend: Vicky and Neeta were planning to frame Raj and Priya for killing Sonia the moment they moved in, and only faked being their friends.
- Foreign Remake: The film is a loose Bollywood adaptation of the 1992 American film Consenting Adults.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Priya and Raj have a whirlwind romance and get married very quickly, with the first 10 minutes of the film showing them from the first meeting to the wedding.
- Frame-Up: Vicky gets Raj drunk and drugged, then sets him up to look like he killed the real Sonia so he and Neeta/fake Sonia could make off with the life insurance money.
- Gold Digger: Vicky is actually married to a rich woman, the real Sonia, who lives far away while he lives with his girlfriend and true love Neeta, the "fake" Sonia. His plan is to kill the real Sonia so he and Neeta can get her life insurance money.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: It never comes to actual cheating, but Raj's attraction to Sonia is portrayed as understandable and he's heroic for resisting her while Vicky's lusting after Priya is seen as lecherous and makes him a creep.
- Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Sonia's attempts to seduce Raj are actually just a part of her and Vicky's Evil Plan and she's not really attracted to Raj or unhappy with Vicky.
- Gratuitous English: Almost every character speaks phrases in English every once in a while, purely for the "cool" factor.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Vicky kills his wife by hitting her in the back of the head with a bottle. He also made sure to use gloves and get Raj's fingerprints on the bottle in order to frame him.
- Happily Married: Despite how quickly they marry, Raj and Priya are very happy together.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Sonia constantly has men ogling her or remarking on her beauty and sex appeal.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During the finale when Raj and Vicky are fighting on the cruise ship, Vicky gets killed when he's impaled by the ship's anchor.
- Insurance Fraud: Vicky is actually a Con Man who specializes in this sort of scheme, even faking accidents and injuries. His latest and current scheme that drives the plot is to kill his rich wife while pinning her murder on Raj so he can get her life insurance money.
- The Item Number: The characters break into song often, especially in the first half of the film before the plot really kicks off. And they often have Priya and Sonia dancing with plenty of Male Gaze.
- Large Ham: Vicky already acts very dramatic and over-the-top but he dials it up further when he reveals he's evil, complete with tons of Evil Gloating and Evil Laughs.
- Lethal Chef: Priya is completely clueless when it comes to cooking, constantly burning the food and even herself.
- Love at First Sight: Priya seems to be attracted to Raj from the moment she first bumps into him. It doesn't take much longer for him to return her feelings.
- Lust Object: Despite being loyal to his wife, Raj can't help but feel attracted to Sonia, to the point that both her and Vicky call him out on how often he's Eating the Eye Candy.
- Marry for Love: Raj and Priya married for love. One of the first things Sonia asks Priya is if she had an Arranged Marriage or a "Love Marriage".
- Masquerading As the Unseen: Downplayed. While Raj briefly sees the real Sonia talking to Vicky once, he doesn't think much of it since he doesn't know her.
- Melodrama: When the main plot kicks in, there are quite a few Melodramatic Pauses and characters turning into Large Hams.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Vicky's first name is Vikram, but everyone just calls him Vicky.
- Papa Wolf: Priya's dad points a gun at Raj when he thinks he's stalking her, but he calms down when he realizes it's all a misunderstanding. He even tries to make amends to Raj by inviting him into his house and they quickly become friends, and he becomes a Shipper on Deck for Raj and Priya.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In the climax, Raj reveals he managed to transfer the life insurance money Vicky got back to the company by guessing his password, which was Vicky's catchphrase "All According to Plan".
- The Peeping Tom: Raj comes into Sonia's bedroom to return a book he borrowed but catches her just as she's coming out of the shower in only a Modesty Towel, though she doesn't notice him and he watches her get dressed. While he's an Accidental Pervert at first, the fact that he stays hidden and watches her makes him a peeping tom. She later reveals she did notice him and made a show of getting dressed just to rile him up.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Raj and Priya's other neighbors are played as this, having weird and goofy antics that don't have anything to do with the main plot.
- Pool Scene: One scene during one of the songs has the two couples visiting a pool, with Raj and Sonia relaxing on the border while Priya and Vicky swim. Priya and Vicky also get a Sexy Surfacing Shot and later pull both their spouses into the water with them.
- Police Are Useless: The Swiss police are portrayed as quite incompetent, easily being fooled by Vicky and arresting the innocent Raj on little proof. When Raj feels his trial won't prove his innocence, he flees the building in order to clear his name on his own.
- Poor Communication Kills: When Raj beats up Vicky over his "wife swapping" suggestion, he refuses to tell Priya the reason for the fight, thinking it's "too scandalous" to repeat. This bites him in the ass later, since without knowing Raj's reason for getting violent, it makes it harder for Priya to believe he's being framed, and when he eventually tells her, she points out it was stupid of him to keep that a secret.
- The Reveal: Sonia is actually just pretending to be Vicky's wife Sonia, who is a rich woman that doesn't currently live with Vicky. The Sonia we know is actually his lover, a woman called Neeta who is working with Vicky in a complicated plan to kill the real Sonia and pin her murder on Raj.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Raj has foiled his plans and exposed him, Vicky goes through a Villainous Breakdown and then attempts to kill Raj and Priya. In his blind fury, he accidentally kills Neeta by kicking her out a widow, which makes him even more deranged.
- Seduction-Proof Marriage: Raj is very attracted to Sonia, but refuses to cheat on his wife, no matter how hard Sonia tries to seduce him. When Vicky proposes they "swap wives", he's absolutely furious at the idea, finding it repugnant.
- Sexy Silhouette: We briefly see a nude silhouette of Sonia behind the frosted glass of her bathroom as she finishes showering.
- Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Sonia plays the piano as sexily as possible, including sitting on it, despite the fact she's alone (Raj is watching, but she didn't notice him).
- Slipping a Mickey: Vicky drugs Raj's drink so he'll get knocked out and won't remember what he did the night Vicky plans to have him framed.
- Soft Glass: Raj is completely unharmed when he jumps through a glass window while escaping his trial.
- Toplessness from the Back: When Raj watches as Sonia comes out of the shower and changes clothes in her house, the audience only sees her bare back.
- Unable to Support a Wife: Vicky was a poor drummer who couldn't properly support his girlfriend Neeta, which led him to become a Con Man and later a Black Widow.
- Unholy Matrimony: Vicky and "Sonia" (whose real name is Neeta) have planned the death of the real Sonia and blamed it on Raj so they could collect the life insurance money.
- Upper-Class Equestrian: Both Raj and Priya's fathers are upper-class polo players, and the sport is seen as being noble and classy. Raj even travels around the world to play it, which is the reason why the couple moves to Switzerland soon after they marry.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Vicky acts as a proper "husband in mourning" after killing his own wife and framing Raj for it, and uses it to try to manipulate Priya into turning on Raj. While this confuses her, it ultimately fails and she chooses to trust her husband.
