Kareeb

Kareeb Ek Prem Kahani
Directed by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Produced by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vir Chopra
Written by	Kamna Chandra Abhijat Joshi
Starring	Bobby Deol, Shabana Raza, Moushmi Chatterji Amit Phalke
Music by	Anu Malik
Distributed by	Tips, Eros Labs (United States) (DVD)
Release date	17 July 1998
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹25 crore (equivalent to ₹79 crore or US$12 million in 2016)
Box office	₹2.5 crore (equivalent to ₹7.9 crore or US$1.2 million in 2016)

Kareeb (Hindi: क़रीब, translation: close) is a 1998 Indian Hindi romance film directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It stars Bobby Deol, Amit Phalke and Shabana Raza.

Plot

Birju (Bobby Deol) is a young man from an upper-middle-class family in Himachal Pradesh. His father insists on him being responsible, while Birju is interested in petty theft, lies, and romancing a beautiful young woman named Neha. Neha is a simple, beautiful, and responsible girl from a poor family. Birju sees Neha for the first time and falls in love with Neha that very moment. Neha also starts liking Birju but hides her feelings. Birju tries everything to impress Neha and Neha accepts that she loves Birju and can't live without him.

Birju's father does not want Birju to marry into a poor family but Birju lies that Nehas's uncle is rich and arranges their wedding. Birju steals money from his home and pretends that the money has been sent by Neha's uncle. However on the night of the wedding, Birju's father discovers the truth and calls off the wedding.

Neha's mother, unable to withstand this emotional setback, suffers a heart attack. When Birju meets Neha, she is very sad for her mother and also very angry at Birju for lying. Neha takes a promise from Birju that he would never show his face again. Neha takes her mother to a Shimla hospital in an ambulance. Birju follows her. Birju spends that night sleeping on the footsteps of a laundry shop owned by Bhigelal (Johnny Lever). Bhigelal is an interesting character as well. He has a dream of visiting England one day and even has a collection of antique coins to sell it to some diwanji. He earns hard and with the money earned by coins and his hard work, he plans to visit England (which also was his father's dream). He hires Birju as a laundry boy. This is Birju's first job and he does that to stay near Neha and to earn some money to support her mother's treatment. One day Birju meets uncle and aunty (Shammi Kapoor and Sushma Seth). They treat Birju as their own son and offer to help him whenever he needs it.

Once when Birju makes inquiries about Neha's mother, he is told by the receptionist that Neha's mother needs an immediate operation and it will be very expensive. Neha tries to contact Birju for help but is not able to reach him. There comes doctor Abhay in the scene. He is very fond of Neha and proposes to marry her in exchange for her mother's operation for free as doctors have their free quota for their relatives.

Birju goes to uncle and aunty and they suggest him to buy a lottery ticket and they will make him win by corrupting some government officials. They ask Birju to get them some amount to bribe the officials. Birju buys the ticket, works hard day and night and gathers the amount and gives it uncle and aunty but eventually comes to know that the couple were a frauds and they took money from many other people and ran away. Helpless Birju steals the money from Bhigelal to pay for the surgery. He returns to the hospital with the money and gives it to the doctor and asks the doctor to keep that secret from Neha.

Birju's family realizes Birju's loves for Neha and decides to support their son in Simla. They reach Simla and handle things with Bhigelal who goes mad on seeing his robbed drawer with Birju's note consisting of a promise to return the money. Neha comes to know that Birju helped her and wants to meet him. They both meet again on staircase of hospital and times stops again to see them completely in love with each other.

Cast

Soundtrack

Anu Malik wrote the film's music and Rahat Indori penned the lyrics. The pair was sued by Syed Mohammed Hasan Imam who alleged that they had used his lyrics without permission in Haan Judai Se Darta Hai Dil.

External links

• Kareeb on IMDb