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Naqaab

Naqaab (नक़ाब, "Mask") is a 2007 Hindi-language romantic suspense thriller directed by the brothers Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla and Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla, known professionally as Abbas-Mustan, and starring Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, and Urvashi Sharma in her debut lead role.¹^•² It was released on 13 July 2007 and underperformed commercially, with trade analysts recording a loss against its budget.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Release	13 July 2007, Hindi language¹
Directors	Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla and Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla (Abbas-Mustan)⁴
Lead cast	Bobby Deol as Karan Oberoi, Akshaye Khanna as Vicky Malhotra, Urvashi Sharma as Sophia "Sophie" D'Souza⁴
Music	Composed by Pritam Chakraborty, lyrics by Sameer¹
Runtime	1 hour 55 minutes⁵
India box office	Total nett gross ₹126,900,000 against a budget of ₹190,000,000; classified a "Disaster" by Box Office India³
Critical reception	46% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 3 reviews; 5.5/10 on IMDb⁶^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot and premise

The film is a love triangle set in Dubai. Sophia, a middle-class woman, becomes engaged to the millionaire Karan, who loves her, but she then meets Vicky, a struggling and ambitious actor, and begins a relationship with him that creates conflict between the two men.⁷ A hidden camera follows the couple, and the story builds toward a twist concerning who is deceiving whom.⁸

At a media interaction before release, Abbas-Mustan described the film as a romantic suspense thriller in which "all the three actors play modern, present day characters and the story which unfolds the mask from each of them."² The title itself means "mask," and the directors cited the suspense films of Vijay Anand, such as Teesri Manzil, as their model.²

Cast and production

The film marked the lead debut of Urvashi Sharma, playing Sophia; Bobby Deol played the wealthy fiancé Karan Oberoi, and Akshaye Khanna played Vicky Malhotra. Supporting roles included Vikas Kalantri as Siddharth, Vishal Malhotra as Ronny, Raj Zutshi as Detective Sam, Archana Puran Singh as a TV reporter, and Ganesh Yadav as a Goa police officer.⁴

The producers were Ramesh S. Taurani and Kumar S. Taurani of Tips Films, with Shiraz Ahmed writing the story and screenplay, Jitendra Parmar and Anurag Prappana the dialogue, and Sameer the lyrics. Pritam Chakraborty composed the music, Ravi Yadav was the cinematographer, and Hussain Burmawalla the editor. Playback singers on the soundtrack included Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Zubeen Garg, Javed Ali, and Alisha Chinai.¹^•⁴ Shooting took place in Dubai.¹

Reception

Critical response. Reviewers were largely negative. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India wrote that "the problem with the film lies in its transparency," arguing that the audience knows from the start who is cheating on whom, and that the narrative pace was lethargic for a thriller; she also called the audio track weak by Abbas-Mustan's standards.⁸ Khalid Mohamed in the Hindustan Times gave the film two stars and wrote that the directors and Shiraz Ahmed had "merely lifted a Hollywood turnip called Dot the I."⁹ Anupama Chopra, reviewing in India Today, wrote that the film failed to reach the box-office level of the duo's earlier thrillers Aitraaz and Humraaz.¹⁰ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 46% Tomatometer score from three critics.⁶

Box office. Box Office India records 825 screens, a first day of ₹2,31,00,000, a first weekend of ₹7,10,00,000, and a total India nett gross of ₹126,900,000 against a budget of ₹19,00,00,000, with the site's verdict "Disaster" and 3,117,000 footfalls.³ Bollywood Hungama reported in its first-week trade analysis that the film opened below expectations, describing it as a well-made film with able performances whose suspense did not work.¹¹ For international earnings, The Numbers lists $5,461,630,¹² while Box Office Mojo lists $4,966,337.⁵

Place in the directors' careers

Naqaab followed a run of Abbas-Mustan thrillers including Baazigar, Ajnabee, Aitraaz, and Humraaz, films the duo's reviewers credited with giving villains and morally shaded leads some of Bollywood's notable performances.⁸ Kazmi grouped it with 36 China Town (2006) as a slip after that run, and the Tips annual report lists Naqaab alongside Race among the films the company released in 2007-08.⁸^•¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2000s › Action and thriller films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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